


Father-Daughter Day Out

by Abbyromana



Series: Father-Daughter Domestics [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-03 17:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 70,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13346016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbyromana/pseuds/Abbyromana
Summary: Jenny and the Doctor have a father/daughter's day out. Sounds fairly mundane, but nothing is ever boring if your father is the Doctor.





	1. Domestics of Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a re-edit of a story I originally posted on Livejournal. It has some sequels that, at the time, were not finished. I hope to complete them now. :)

  
The Doctor secured the knot of his red tie while admiring his reflection in the dresser mirror. He hadn’t looked this clean and wrinkle-free for some time. Even his hair had some sort of order to it. Not saying he didn’t like to look his best, but when travelling through time and space, running from madmen and saving civilizations, a time traveller had to have higher priorities than whether his shirt was clean. Well, that was true, until Donna Noble more  _demanded_  than asked him to make himself presentable for dinner.

“Not necessarily an unreasonable request,” the Doctor admitted as he smoothed down his tie. “No big disasters are happening. No alien invasions of Earth. And no madmen trying to change the course of human history. It's probably safe to say no big emergencies require my attention at present."   
  
The Doctor sighed heavily as his shoulders drooped. "But why does she have to drag Jenny and me to her mum’s.” There was a less than heroic whine to his voice. “Dinner with the Noble family! And it’s not even just her mum and grandad, but with her whole bloody, extended family for some stupid reunion. A family reunion with the Nobles... I can’t fathom how she talked me into it? I’m too smart for that, yes, much too smart. Absolutely brilliant, in fact! Genius unmatched anywhere.... or when. I’ve out smarted Daleks, highly advanced computers and intelligent viruses and... and...” He paused, giving himself a thoughtful look in the mirror. “What was I talking about again?” The Doctor stared blankly at his reflection, until he remembered. “Oh yes, the Noble family shindig. Blag!”

The Doctor turned away from the mirror and started towards his bed. “I still can’t believe I agreed to that... that kind of... thing... again!” The Doctor groaned, fidgeting with his shirt sleeve buttons. “ I should have learned after the dinner with Rose, Jackie, and Mickey... don’t do family dinners. They aren't worth the domestics. Too much risk of saying the wrong thing and getting slapped or worse... kissed!” The Doctor shuddered as he remembered a rather drunk Jackie Tyler plopping down beside him on the Tyler's living room couch with a twig of mistletoe in hand.

 

“Nope definitely not going to give any Noble women the chance,” he stated before groaning. “Oh, what have you got yourself in for, Doctor? I just can’t imagine. No, I can but I don't want to think about it. Dinner with the Nobles.” He scoffed. “I mean I have more important... grander... life and death... well, at least they are far more interesting than some very silly ― extremely trivial ― family gathering.”

Yet the Doctor hadn’t said ‘no’ to Donna – at least not to her face. He knew better than to complain to his latest companion. Only now, when Donna was off helping Jenny prepare, that he quietly protested. “Donna Noble has stepped over that fine line... that wonderfully  _bold_  fine line that I painted out in bright red glowing paint for all companions. It's right next to the rule ‘Never wander off!’ That lovely line that clearly states, in big letters, ‘Do Not Cross Under Any Circumstances,'” but, oh no, not Donna Noble. She just takes it upon herself to grab the controls of the TARDIS and my life without a second word. How unfair is that?! It’s my TARDIS!” A pout formed on his lips as gazed down at the spotless blue jacket on his bed. “She even sets up a daily schedule of sleeping, having “family time,” and eating it’s like... it’s like being back in the Prydon Academy again. People telling me what to do, telling me when and how to do it; no thank you! 

 

He pursed his lips as he continued to gaze at his blue jacket. Scratching the back of his neck, he considered his words.

“And maybe Jenny doesn’t want to have so much father-daughter time. It’s not like we have a lot catch up on. It’s not like she wants to hang out with... with old, grumpy me.” He sighed sadly. “I’m sure she probably has other things she much rather be doing, places she'd rather be.”

He heaved a deep, frustrated breath, picking up his blue jacket from the foot of the completely wrinkle-free bed. The Doctor had spent the entire sleeping time, which Donna had scheduled for all of them, tinkering on a personal shield device his last self had started but never finished. It was his small way of revolting against the orders of Donna. It made him feel a bit better being rebellious. Of course, he didn't know how rebellious it really was since Donna never really knew he'd done it, and he wouldn't dare tell her he had.

Shifting jacket on to his shoulders and then patting his pockets. He felt a slight bulge, remembering the device he put in earlier. WIth a smile on his lips, he proceeded towards the door. “I don’t care what Donna says. I refuse to spend more than an hour at her mum’s semi.”

He had just crossed the threshold of his bedroom when Donna’s voice thundered down the hallway. “Don’t you even think of doing that!”

The Doctor sprang back into his room, and for a brief moment, panicked that Donna had heard his grumbles. He gasped for breath, fearing the  _oncoming slap_ , but he was somewhat relieved to hear Jenny yelling back at the top of her lungs.

“Well, I’m not wearing that... that thing!” Jenny’s voice boomed back. “It’s cumbersome! If we should get attacked I need something unrestrictive to run and fight in!”

The Doctor peeked out into the hallway, looking in both directions for the two women currently in his life, but saw neither, despite the argument continuing.

“We’re having a nice dinner with my family, not going into battle!” Donna’s irritated voice pointed out. The Doctor could picture the daggers shooting from Donna’s eyes and the way her hands would be clenching and unclenching.

“You don’t know!” Jenny’s voice countered with an echoing scoff. “First rule of a soldier is always to be prepared for anything. Even Dad agrees with that rule.”

The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and nodded to himself. She was right; he did agree with that rule. More than once on his travels he’d come across the unexpected and the unusual, which required him to think on his feet.

Stepping out of his bedroom, the Doctor shut the door and gave another glance in both directions of the hallway. He debated whether he should go to the console room and wait for them or if he should play referee to their arguing match. Not that he thought they’d hurt each other, but the two in question were a former soldier and a hot-tempered, red head who on more than three occasions had slapped him. Despite his repulsion to becoming entangled in the domestics of life, the Doctor headed in the direction of the yelling.

He burrowed his hands in his pants pockets and cringed as the argument persisted.

“I will not!” screamed Jenny.

“You so will!” Donna screamed back.

The Doctor rolled his eyes.

No matter how many times he had carried women on his ship, and no matter what species they were, if he had more than one at a time the females never failed at some point during their stay on his TARDIS to get into a yelling match. Barbara and Susan had argued quite a bit, convincing him and Ian to go on more than one walk outside the TARDIS just to get away from the noise; Nyssa and Tegan had screamed at one another over some of the silliest things, giving him an excuse to do repairs with Adric or teach Turlough about the finer points of time travel outside. The fighting was tiresome and usually the Doctor had avoided getting involved, but for once, he thought he’d try at least to stop any unnecessary damage to his precious TARDIS. Also, for once he didn’t have a male companion he could sneak off with for a chat, exploration, or work, until the fight was over.

“Why can’t I just wear my fatigues?” Jenny asked loudly.

“Not at my family dinner!” Donna boomed. "Any way, you've been wearing them for the past two weeks. They're filthy! It's time you wear something else."

There was an irate scoff from Jenny in response.

“You aren’t a soldier anymore!” Donna declared. “And I don’t bloody well care what your father thinks. At least he has the good sense to be mature enough, for once, to dress up for this dinner... I wish you would stop acting like a child!”

The Doctor heard a defiant humph from Jenny as he approached the doorway to the changing room, but still he didn’t enter.

“I’m not a child!” her voice declared.

“Then prove it, and start acting like the supposedly superior Time Lady you keep telling me you are,” Donna said both loudly and slightly calmer.

He could hear the sound of cloth rustling inside as he edged along the wall outside the changing room. It wasn’t only because they were fighting that he didn’t just enter, but also because one or both of them might not be proper yet.

Biting his lip, the Doctor dared to glance inside. He just saw the head of Jenny vanish behind a white changing screen. There was a sad pout on her lips, her clear blue eyes were set with determination, and her brow was furrowed. She never looked more like him than at that moment, and he couldn’t hold back the smirk on his lips.

“My little girl,” he chuckled softly.

Suddenly, Donna’s purple, curvy form slid into view before him. His eyes snapped up to meet her blazing gaze.

“What are you doing?!” she hissed. Then Donna’s eyes widened, and she gasped, “You better not be peeping!”

“No!” the Doctor said, jumping back. He waved his arms back and forth in front of him. “No, no, no, no. Definitely not. Oh, no, definitely not that. Not me, oh no, never that. Never ever, ever that. I... I just heard you yelling… and… and I wanted to… to make sure you two were okay.”

He put on a fake smile, but it didn’t seem to be working. Donna’s eyes narrowed even more, so the Doctor tried to change the subject.

“By the way, you look lovely in that purple dress,” the Doctor smiled. He glanced at the calf length, flowing dress that Donna was wearing. It was made of a beautiful, royal purple, silky material and trimmed with gold embroidery along both the skirt and curving neck. It had slightly puffy sleeves of the princess variety. “Purple really suits you! It brings out your...” He swallowed quickly looking for something to compliment her on. “...eyes.”

Donna looked surprised and then blushed. Her head dipped as she replied in a softer voice, “Oh, thank you, Doctor. That’s nice of you to say.” After a moment her gaze washed over him, giving him a scrutinizing look. “You look very smart yourself, Doctor. The blue suit is a good choice. Bright colours really suit you much more than that drab brown you always insist on.”

“Just an alternative I like to wear once and awhile,” he said, burying his hands in his pockets and flashing Donna another cheeky grin. When he heard the rustle of cloth and a slight irritated groan, the Doctor glanced toward the white changing screen Jenny had disappeared behind. “So how’s Jenny doing?”

Donna heaved a sigh while playing with one of her red curls. She had let her shoulder length red hair down and curled the ends. It looked good on her.

“Fine,  _now_!” she said, emphasizing the last part.

There was a snort of distain from behind the white changing screen.

“She was refusing to put on a dress,” Donna explained, tapping one of her dark coloured, high-heeled shoes, “despite my sound advice.”

“I could hear,” the Doctor said softly with a teasing grin. 

She immediately fixed him with a warning look. He was sure he could see a silent ‘don’t push me, Martian Boy’ burning in her eyes.

He quickly brushed it off and intensified his smile. “Well, it is nice of you to help her out. It’s always hard to get use to new clothes. I should know, I’ve had to do it for nine different bodies, and I can tell you…”

Donna's brow furrowed in confusion at his comment.

Jenny’s head popped into view from behind the screen with a huge grin. “What do you mean you’ve had nine bodies, Dad?” she asked enthusiastically. Her blue eyes shone with curiosity.

“Well, actually, this is my tenth self,” he told her with a warm smile. He noticed her long blonde hair was down. It made her look less like a soldier and more like a beautiful young woman.

“That’s enough for now,” Donna told them before fixing Jenny with a severe stare. “Are you done yet, Jenny?”

“Yeah, I’m done,” Jenny said sarcastically, “well, except I can’t seem to get the zipper on the back all the way up.”

Donna drew in a deep breath, but this time she was smiling. “I know; I hate those types of dresses too. Here let me,” she said calmly to Jenny as she approached the white changing screen. “Turn around, Jenny.”

The Doctor leaned on the door frame and watched as Donna ushered Jenny back behind the changing screen before joining her. A smile crept over his face. Donna was incredible with Jenny; sure they argued, so had Susan and Barbara, but that didn’t mean Donna wasn’t an amazing surrogate mum to her. She was just what Jenny needed to learn about being female. That was the one thing the Doctor could never teach Jenny, no matter how much experience he had with various women across time and space. Perhaps Donna was slightly overbearing and forceful at times, but there wasn’t anything wrong with that, just as long as it wasn’t directed towards him.

“Now there’s just your hair and make-up to worry about,” Donna sighed from behind the screen.

“What’s wrong with my hair?” Jenny asked touchily.

“I wish we had time to do something with it, but since you’ll probably ruin it before the evening is over anyway… just brush it out.” He heard movement behind the curtain. “Here you go. Finish brushing it out and please just leave it down, okay?”

Jenny muttered, “Okay, okay.”

Then Donna emerged, gently smoothing down her dress. “Well, she should be ready in a few minutes or so,” Donna told him, walking toward a small dresser with a mirror. She started digging through a cosmetic bag. “I’ll just have to do a bit of make-up on her face…”

“What’s wrong with my face?” Jenny demanded from behind the white changing screen.

“Oi! I don’t hear brushing!” Donna yelled back before fixing the Doctor with a commanding stare. “You go wait in the console room.” The Doctor nodded and turned to leave when Donna yelled. “And you better have landed us on Earth in May 25, 2008, or I swear…”

“I know, I know,” called the Doctor over his shoulder. Once out of the changing room he grumbled to himself, “Definitely no more than 40 minutes with her family. Yup, definitely no more than that.”

The Doctor walked slowly down the hallway past the bedroom section. He continued to mutter to himself, until he saw the organic glow emanating from an open doorway ahead of him. It was the heart of the TARDIS: the console room. Instantly, the Doctor felt a relieved sensation come over him as he entered the spacious room.

“Hello, old girl. How are you doing?” he greeted before racing up to the console. The TARDIS flickered between a bright green and gold colour. The Doctor grinned madly at the column. “Glad to hear it! You miss me?”

There was a darkening of the lights and the Doctor’s face fell.

“What do you mean you’re glad Donna is keeping me away from  _unnecessary_  work? What do you mean by  _unnecessary_?" he inquired. "Don’t tell me you...”

He stopped when the lights flickered between bright green and a burnt orange colour. The TARDIS was going on and on about Jenny and the Time Lords, but it was so random that it didn’t make complete sense to him. A billion questions flickered through the Doctor’s mind.

“What are you talking about? What about Jenny? What....”

His words were cut off by Donna’s voice booming down the hallway. “Are we there yet, Doctor?”

He glanced back nervously before he said, “Yeah, just a second.”

The Doctor gave the glowing column another quick, perplexed stare before he started to move around the console to the dematerialization controls. He set the temporal and spatial stabilizers for the proper destination on Earth. Then he dashed around, yanking down on the brake lever as he passed by it. The ship gave sudden forceful jolt, but onward he went about the console. He twisted the temporal placement switches and allowed the TARDIS to ease into the spatial coordinates he set on the monitor’s keypad. He watched the monitor flicker to the new coordinates.

There was another slight jolt, but otherwise it was a nice and safe landing. Feeling very good, the Doctor called back, “We’re here, Donna!” before heading down the ramp. As he passed by the railing, the Doctor picked up his long tan coloured overcoat.

A bit of fresh air was just what the Doctor needed to clear his head before being bombarded by the Noble clan. “Yep, good old Earth... Great Britain... London... Chiswick. All on a beautiful late May evening.”

He grinned to himself as he lifted the trench coat on to his shoulders. Then Doctor reached for the doors and flung them open. Immediately his smile fell away.

“Oh, Donna’s going to kill me,” the Doctor groaned, right before he heard the click of high heeled shoes entering the console room.

 

oOo

 

“I’m so going to kill you, Doctor,” Donna growled. Her eyes were wide as she stared out into the sun peeking up behind the houses, and then she snapped a glare.

“Well, technically I got it right... mostly,” the Doctor pointed out, dashing back up the ramp toward the console. “Well, somewhat... kind of.” He ran his hand through his hair and muttered to himself.

She scoffed and marched toward him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her face was reddening. “Oh, really?” she asked heatedly. “How’s that?”

“Well it is Earth and it is May 25, 2008,” the Doctor said, pushing buttons and gazing at the monitor

“It’s bloody 6 o’clock in the morning!” Donna yelled. “Not in the evening!”

“Okay, so I’m off by twelve hours,” the Doctor confessed with a shrug, “but for me that’s loads better than I’ve ever done.” Then he flashed a cheeky grin. “I remember one time with Rose, I was off by twelve months.” He chuckled, before a thunderous slap sounded, wiping the grin from his face. A hurt expression crossed the Doctor’s face as he rubbed his reddening cheek.

“Some time machine,” Donna complained. Her voice broke as she spoke on. “Can’t you even fly it to the right place and time, just once?!”

The Doctor sighed deeply. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ll reset the coordinates and…”

“Oh, no thank you,” the Donna said objectively. Her hand griped his arm, wrenching his hand away from the brake stick. “Thanks all the same, alien boy, but I’m not risking you getting us even later or earlier. Or you getting us trapped on some other planet for who knows how long. This is fine… we’ll just have to arrive very, very, very early.”

The Doctor cringed. It was bad enough, having to spend dinner with the entire Noble flock, but over twelve hours stuck in a jam packed two story house with nearly 3-dozen people, including Donna’s mum and grandad. That was just too much to ask of him. Not saying Donna’s family was horrible or anything compared to some families he’d met in the past.... but he didn’t do families, not anymore.

“What?” Donna asked, sounding perturbed. Her eyes stared perplexed at him. “What’s with the cringing?”

“Oh,” he whined. “I just don’t know if I really want to spend the whole day at your place. No offense or anything but that’s boring.”

“What even with grandad? I thought you liked him,” she pointed out.

“Well…” the Doctor started to say.

Wilf Mott was okay: very friendly, curious, and open-minded. Generally, he was okay compared to some humans. Yet, the Doctor was sure if he spent twelve – plus hours with the old man, he’d end up getting asked one hundred thousand and one questions about aliens and other planets, being a Martian, travelling in time and space, what historical figures the Doctor had met, and whether he and Donna were in a relationship. He’d had enough of those questions, particularly the latter lately.

“No offense or anything,” the Doctor said, “but I think it might be more productive if I stay here.”

“Does that mean I can stay too?” Jenny inquired merrily from doorway between the console room and the rest of the TARDIS. The Doctor turned and immediately had his breath stolen away.

Jenny looked absolutely beautiful. Her long blonde hair cascaded in waves over her shoulders, reaching to mid-way down her back. It was parted on one side with a silver flower clip over her right ear. A knee length, waist defining, silky dress was wrapped around her, showing of her slender waist. It was as blue as the TARDIS with thick, drooping velvet straps and a skirt that curved out just a bit. On her feet were flat, dark blue, strappy sandals.

The Doctor recognized the dress only a moment later. The beautiful blue dress had once been Susan’s. It had been her favourite dress. He recalled her begging him to get it, so she could wear it for some silly school dance. But she never had a chance to wear it, because of two nosy teachers. Now, all these centuries the dress had hung in wait for someone to pick it up. Jenny had been that person, and now seeing her in it really hit home how much she reminded him of Susan.

The Doctor couldn’t help but grin at Jenny.

“Oh, no you won’t,” Donna said crossly.

The Doctor’s gaze was drawn back to his red-headed companion. “What?!”

“I’m not leaving you two here to go off on some dangerous adventure, and then lose track of time, while I have to deal with dinner and my family.” She turned toward the Doctor and poked him in the chest a few times. “This family gathering isn’t just for me. It is for the two of you as well. So you are both coming to dinner. Fine if you don’t want to spend the whole day with us, but you two will go out for a bit of father-daughter time before dinner.”

“Go out to do what?” the Doctor asked as an eyebrow of his crept up his forehead.

“I don’t know! Take her to the zoo to see the animals, or the park for ice cream, or the museum to learn. Whatever it is that you Time Lords do with your children!” she told him, starting to push him away from the console and toward the exterior door of the TARDIS. “But I don’t want you to stay here, is that clear?”

“Look, Donna, Jenny isn’t a child technically and technically I’m not a father... more of a... a genetic donor... and... and even if she was and I was, well... Time Lords don’t really do family time, at least not like that, like your suggesting, and.... well...,” he started to say as he was shoved out of his own ship, followed closely by Jenny.

“Well, you aren’t on Time Lord World now, are you, space man?!” Donna declared, shutting the TARDIS door behind them and locking it. “This is Earth and here fathers and daughters spend time together.” Then she snapped around and put one long finger in front of his face as if she knew he was about to argue. “Oh, and don’t even think about sneaking off in the TARDIS to anywhere. Or when!”

The Doctor’s face fell, and he glared at her. “Donna...” he warned.

She gave him a silencing glare. “Is that clear?!”

That was the end of the conversation. He mumbled, “Fine.”

 

_To be continued..._


	2. Silence between us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jenny and the Doctor have a father/daughter's day out. Sounds fairly mundane, but nothing is ever boring if your father is the Doctor.

The Doctor and Jenny meandered down Chiswick High Road, passing by window fronts for all sorts of businesses and restaurants. His hands were burrowed in his brown overcoat pockets, while Jenny was busy fidgeting with her skirt. Both would rather be doing anything else than just walking side by side in silence. 

Since Donna had left them two hours ago, they hadn’t said a single word other than those for indicating direction. Even those had been more gestured than spoken.The discomfort of the situation seemed worse, because this was, officially, the first time it was just the two of them. Usually it was the three of them: the Doctor, Jenny, and Donna. Donna had been with them: both on Messaline and in the TARDIS. She was the trigger and organizer of conversations and activities.

Now, without her, the Doctor and Jenny both found it hard to speak to the other. They kept spying quick glances, waiting for the other to say something, anything. It wasn’t that they didn’t have things to say or questions they wanted to ask, but neither was sure how to start. They also both shared a deep seeded fear of saying something that might upset the other. So they stayed silent as they strolled onward, just appreciating the other’s quiet company.

 

oOo

 

The Doctor glanced at Jenny again. Her gaze was fixed in the other direction. He’d have paid anything to know what had captured her attention.

_Is she admiring Earth? It is only her second time on this planet, and technically, we weren’t here long last time when we dropped off Martha. Maybe she likes Earth as much as I do. I hope so. I wonder if there is anything in particular she likes about the Earth. Does she like the natural beauty? I know she seemed to enjoy it when we found that luscious garden holding The Source on Messaline. Or maybe it’s nothing like that at all?_

 His thoughts turned, considering a much darker possibility.

_Maybe she’s thinking about the invisible stars in the sky, wishing to be far from here. Maybe she’s missing Messaline. Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken her with me. Maybe Jenny would have been happier on Messaline. All this travelling and running might not be for her, just like it wasn’t for Susan. Maybe it isn’t as good as she thought it would be and now she wishes to return home, just like Adric did. I wish I knew what she is thinking. I wish I knew what the right thing is for her._

The Doctor’s lips parted and words floated on the tip of his tongue, but they wouldn’t go any further. His throat constricted and his mouth snapped shut. He sighed deeply, letting his head dip in thought.

_I’m usually so much better at starting up conversations with people. I credit myself on small talk, I'm brilliant at it! Yet, this time it’s different. Jenny isn’t just some person I met or an evil tyrant I’m trying to stop; she’s my daughter. The closest thing I’ll ever have to family again. That alone should make it easy. That alone should encourage me to be open. I should feel relaxed and in control, but instead I feel... I don’t know... speechless._

Sighing deeply, the Doctor averted gaze. He watched the activities of an ice cream push cart in front of a local cafe. It was advertising on a large white sign next to it, “Special on New Ice Cream Flavours.” Behind the stand was a cheerful man in a white apron, serving some children.

_Ice cream? Didn’t Donna mention that having ice cream in a park is a fun activity for a father and daughter? I wonder if Jenny likes ice cream. Does she even know what it is?_

The Doctor’s sight locked on to the small sign underneath the large one. It listed the flavours. His eyes widened with pure joy.

_Oh, look they have banana flavour! I love banana flavour! One of the best things in the world – bananas! And that place has it as an ice cream flavour! I wonder if I can get some, even if Jenny doesn’t like it. But wait is that being rude? I think it is. Maybe I shouldn’t then. I don’t want to be a bad remodel for Jenny, but... but I really want some banana flavoured ice cream!_

The Doctor licked his lips and continued to stare longingly at the ice cream cart.

 

oOo

 

It was at that moment that Jenny glanced over at her father. She watched his intense expression and tried to follow his line of sight. To her, he seemed to be watching the activities of the humans. Jenny desperately wanted to know what he was thinking about.

_Is he plotting out what he would do if we are suddenly attacked? No, that doesn’t sound like Dad. He isn’t a military officer despite that he sometimes acts like a general. No, something else must be going through his brilliant mind. I wish I knew what._

Jenny let her gaze wash over the scene again. She tried to think like her father. The first thing to come to mind was the children standing in front of the man in white who stood behind a white push cart.

_Is he thinking about the children? Is he concerned about them? I don’t see anything wrong or out of place, but if he is worried, why? No, that can’t be it. It just doesn’t make sense._

As she saw the man in white hand over a shiny mound of frozen stuff in a brown cone, Jenny noticed the young girl with long blonde braids was giggling happily. Her friends licked their own white, frozen mounds in brown cones before they all raced away laughing.

_Perhaps he’s pondering their youth and innocence. They haven’t a care in the world. I suppose that’s what a childhood is for. I wish I could have had one. I wonder if Dad had one. I’m guessing he did since he wasn’t created like me... or was he?_

She pondered her father, gazing at his thin, freshly shaven face. There was a bit of a smile playing at his lips and a mischievous glimmer in his brown eyes.

_He does act like a child. So maybe he didn’t have one either and that’s why he acts like one so often. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone with as much energy and enthusiasm as him. He always approaches the world with a curiosity only matched by a child._

A smile lit her face. His enthusiasm was one of her favourite aspects of him. He seemed to be able to be excited and enthralled by almost everything and anything they had come across so far. Every time she saw that beaming smile lighting his brown eyes, Jenny couldn’t help feel an urge to smile along with him. 

_It is just so infectious,_  Jenny thought before her smile was quickly replaced by a sadder and thoughtful look.

_Then again, perhaps he did have a childhood and it was horrible. Maybe that’s why he never talks about his past. I wonder what happened. Something horrible I imagine. Does he wish I had a childhood? If I did, he could enjoy it with me, to make up for his own. Perhaps that is what he is thinking about right now. Is that why he always seems so distant around me? Am I less like a real daughter in his eyes, because I didn’t have a childhood? He does like to point out that I’m not technically he’s daughter. I’m an unnatural creature forced upon him with no warning or time to prepare. I’m not even a real Time Lord, not like Dad. Does he hate me because I’m so much like him, yet so different?_

Jenny sighed and averted her eyes away as she felt tears prickle in their corners. “I wish I knew what to say,” Jenny muttered to herself but it wasn’t as soft as she thought. “I wish I could make you happy, Dad.”

“Hmm? Sorry did you say something?” her father asked suddenly.

Jenny turned to see him looking at her keenly. There was a bit too much enthusiasm behind those words for Jenny. Her hearts were aching at the moment and his look of expectancy tore at her core, and yet, she couldn’t deny that she was glad that he had said something. He was actually paying her some attention.

Jenny gave in a little to her urge to smile before answering, “Just thinking out loud, Dad.” Her hands shifted behind her back, clasping tightly to one another.

He smiled back, but Jenny noticed that it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “Oh, okay,” he said before averting his gaze away without another word.

The unnerving silence settled in and Jenny bit her lip. She didn’t like the times when he didn’t speak. It made her feel alone and empty. But the only way to get him to speak again was for her to speak first. She took a shuddering breath as the questions that had been nagging her returned to the forefront of her mind. She wanted to ask him about him, their people, their world, and everything else only he could tell her.

“Dad...,” she said suddenly, even surprising herself.

At the same second, he said, “Jenny...”

They both looked at each other shocked by their exact timing, and then they both waited for the other to go on.

Not wanting to hear more silence, Jenny said, “Sorry, you were saying, Dad.”

Her father coughed, looking very uncomfortable. He ran his hand through his hair as his lips moved in and out. “Well, I was just going to ask you... ask about...,” he said, fumbling with words.

One of Jenny’s eyebrows rose up her forehead as she looked hopefully at him. She was mentally urging him on.

Then it all came out in a rush. “Wouldyouliketogetsomeicecream,Jenny?”

Jenny came to a sudden stop on the sidewalk, and a dumbfounded look wafted over her face. “What?” she said. She was slightly taken back by his rushed words.

Her father stopped beside her. He coughed, and then said more slowly, “Would you like to get some ice cream, Jenny?” He gestured to the white push cart in front of the building with the sign ‘Miller’s Cafe’ on it.

“Oh, sure,” she said, not sure what else to say.

“I mean, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to,” he said, appearing to be even more uncomfortable than she felt. “I mean if you don’t like ice cream...”

“I don’t know,” she said with a forced chuckle. “I’ve never had it before. Is ice cream good?”

“Is ice cream good?!” he said, bouncing on his heels. Then he started off toward the cart, calling over his shoulder to her. “You’re in for a treat, Jenny! How do you feel about banana flavour? Or strawberry flavour? Ah ha! You’ll love it!”

There it was the energy and enthusiasm of a child. She smiled back and shrugged. “I’m willing to try anything at least once,” she said, following after him.

 

oOo

 

The Doctor and Jenny sat on the rim of a working, marble fountain in a small park just off of Chiswick High Road. It was quiet with only a few people about. Overhead the morning sun was playing hide and seek in the clouds.

The Doctor and Jenny ate their ice cream, some devouring it faster than others. The Doctor gave a long, greedy lick to his large scoop of banana ice cream. It was soon dripping down the edges of his waffle cone, but the Doctor was quick and slurped up the drips before they reached his hand. He was content for the moment as his gaze skimmed over his calm spring surroundings, and, of course, Jenny.

Between licks, the Doctor watched Jenny as she cautiously ate her scoop of the strawberry ice cream, also in a waffle cone. He noticed how methodical she was with the cold treat. First, she would lick one side slowly and purposefully as if testing it. Then she would lean back from it and move the contents about in her mouth, while staring perplexed at the melting mound. Next she would turn the waffle cone a couple of degrees and lick another side before once more leaning back, considering it. She repeated this process again and again. The Doctor wasn’t sure yet if she liked ice cream, but she at least seemed interested.

Swallowing down his latest mouthful, he turned and asked, “So do you like ice cream?”

Jenny shrugged. “It’s okay, but I don’t think I like strawberry flavour that much.”

“You could try a different flavour,” he said, “Here try mine.” He placed his melting ice cream before her. “It’s banana flavour.”

“I don’t know,” Jenny said, wrinkling her nose. “Are bananas good?”

“Are bananas good?!” the Doctor said. He was flabbergasted that anyone in their right mind would say such a thing. Without hesitation, he leapt to his feet. “Bananas are brilliant! Bananas are the best things in the world. They’re good for parties... for... for celebrating... for ice cream. I can’t think of a single thing that bananas can’t be used for.” He paused and let a thoughtful look run across his face before shaking his head. “Nope nothing!”

Jenny grinned at him and seeming to barely hold back her laughter. “Really?”

“Oh, yes!” he said enthusiastically, swinging his hands around. “Bananas are the best... well, one of the best things found on Earth... next to jelly babies and edible ball-bearings... and cricket!”

“You really like Earth, don’t you, Dad?” Jenny said.

“Yes,” the Doctor said, plopping down beside her on the edge of the fountain with huge grin, “but mostly because of the humans. They are an amazing bunch. So much potential and it’s just raring to burst forth.” He spread his arms wide to emphasize his point, causing a shower of droplets from his melting ice cream to splash on Jenny's legs.

“Hey!” Jenny said, sounding only slightly annoyed, but there was a cheerful grin on her face.

The Doctor gave her a sheepish grin before continuing on, “You’ve seen firsthand on Messaline what humans are capable of.”

Jenny’s smile dipped into a distressed frown. “You mean as soldiers, killing those different then themselves,” Jenny said.

“No!” the Doctor said more harshly then he intended. He bit his lip when he saw Jenny cringe and avert her gaze away. “Well, yes,” he admitted before explaining, “but they also have an unbelievable will to survive and flourish. They can withstand the worst the universe has to offer. It is true they have a great capacity for evil and destruction, but they also have an amazing ability for good, particularly compassion and understanding.”

Her gaze rose to meet his again. It was accompanied by a small smile, which relieved him greatly. He thought Jenny looked the most beautiful when she smiled.

“Are....” Jenny started to say but she bit her lip. The Doctor thought she looked unsure about asking him something important. He wanted her to go on, because anything important to her was important to him.

“What?” asked the Doctor, giving her a curious and pleading look that begged her to continue. He had finally gotten her to start talking to him, and he wasn’t going to let the quietness set in again. He was too afraid he might not be able to maintain the line of communication if she put all the responsibility for coming up with conversation topics on him. “Ask me anything.”

Jenny looked at him expectantly. Her lips parted. “Well, I was wondering... the Time...”

But before Jenny could finish the sentence, a voice cried, “Look out!”

Both Jenny and the Doctor turned in the direction of the voice just in time to see a football come flying at them. Without thinking about what he was doing, the Doctor let go of his ice cream cone and grabbed Jenny, yanking her and him out of the way. However, in the rush the Doctor forgot they were sitting on the edge of a marble fountain and soon found he was falling back into said fountain with Jenny coming down upon him. The last thing he saw and heard was the rush of water engulfing him right before a sharp pain flared in his chest.

 

_To be continued..._


	3. Fall in Head First

Jenny gasped and sputtered as her head popped out of the water. Her long blonde hair was soaked, covering her face. She gasped for thought and air as she tried with little success to gain her balance. The marble bottom of the fountain was far too slippery. She frantically reached about trying desperately to find something to hold on to. When she found nothing, her thoughts suddenly turned to her father. Since Jenny had resurfaced, she hadn’t seen or heard any sign of him.  
  
“Dad!” she called out with a tone of panic in her voice. “Dad, where are you?”  
  
Barely a few seconds passed before there was the sound of rushing water behind her. “Here, I got you, Jenny,” her father's calm voice said. She felt two strong hands grip her upper arms. “Just breathe and let me lead you forward.” Jenny could feel him guiding her in one direction, sliding along the smooth bottom of the fountain. “Now just reach forward.”  
  
She did and after a moment her slippery fingers felt the solid surface of the fountain’s edge at last. Sluggishly, she pulled herself over the edge and back on to dry ground. As quickly as she could, Jenny pushed the soaking strands of her hair out of her face. She looked to her father. He was kneeling on the ground next to the fountain, a little hunched over, and breathing deeply as he ran his fingers shakily through his wet hair.

  
“Dad! Are you okay?” Jenny asked, rushing towards his kneeling form. She couldn’t help the concern flooding her mind as she reached to help him stand.  
  
He raised his gaze and momentarily looked at her with a deep frown. There was shimmer of discomfort in his brown eyes. If Jenny didn’t know any better, she’d have thought her father was about to cry. Then he blinked and straightened his form to a full standing position, and when he opened his eyes again, a bit of a smile fluttered over his face, but it still didn’t reach his eyes.  
  
“Yeah, I’m still kicking,” he said, removing his brown trench coat.

Jenny took a step back, giving him a skeptical look. Something felt off as she watched him wring out his sopping wet overcoat. She would have inquired had the appearance of their current state not dawned on her; they were completely soaking wet from head to toe. Donna was going to be steamed.  
  
From behind Jenny, she heard the sound of heavy breathing and running. She turned just in time to see two young men racing up to them. One of the young men had slanted, dark brown eyes and spiky, fiery red hair. He ran straight up to them with a worried expression on his face. The other had much darker skin and jet black hair. He looked apologetically at them before dashing over to the other side of the fountain.  
  
“Oh, we’re so sorry about that, sir,” the fiery red haired young man said. “Are you and your daughter okay?”  
  
Jenny looked to her father again and saw that there was a flicker of anger in his eyes. She would have said it almost looked like a raging storm ready to burst forth, but after a brief moment, it fizzled away and a pleasant smile replaced it.  
  
“I’m good,” her father answered before looking at her. He beamed at her as he reached to touch her shoulder. “Are you okay, Jenny?” he asked as his gaze moved up and down her wet form. “No broken bones anything?  
  
“No,” Jenny replied, shaking her head and tugging at her clinging skirt, “I don’t think so. I’m just starting to feel a bit chilly.”  
  
“Here,” the he said, once more shaking out his long overcoat before draping it around her. “Might still be a bit wet, but it will keep you covered and warmer.”

  
She flashed him a smile as she tugged the lapels closer around her. “Thank you, Dad.”  
  
Then she noticed her father's gaze had shifted to a point behind her where the fiery red haired young man stood. Turning back to the young man, she saw he was grinning warmly at her, and in response, her hearts skipped two beats. It caught her completely off guard. She suddenly felt flushed. In a vain attempt, Jenny tried to bite back the rising blush in her cheeks and shift his attention to something else.  
  
“What... what was that... that thing that almost hit us?” she asked the fiery red haired young man.  
  
The darker skinned young man returned with the black and white spherical item in question, bouncing it on his knee. “Sorry about that, Miss...” he started to say.  
  
“Jenny,” she said.  
  
“Jenny,” the fiery red haired young man said softly with another grin. She thought the way he said her name sounded as if he was tasting it. Her hearts fluttered again and she squeezed even tighter on the lapels of her father’s overcoat with her right hand.  
  
“My friends and I were playing football, and I’m afraid my friend Clyde here forgot his own strength,” he said, lightly punching the other young man in the arm. Then Clyde winked back at him.  
  
“Says you, Neal,” Clyde teased the fiery red haired young man.  
  
Neal turned back with a sad expression. “But I feel really bad. If there is anything I can do to make it up to both of you.”  
  
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary,” her father said, suddenly taking a hold of Jenny’s left hand. “We better go any way. We have a dinner...”  
  


“But, Dad, our clothes are ruined,” Jenny pointed out, looking up at him with alarm. “Donna’s going to be really steamed if we show up at her place like this.”   
  
“My mum’s got a dry cleaner’s shop just up the block away,” Neal said, gesturing back toward Chiswick High Road. “I can take you there right now, and she can have it done like three.... four hours tops.”

Her father's mouth opened, looking unsure what to say.  
  
“Free of charge, cause of it being my fault,” Neal expressed. His eyes were focused on Jenny. There was a radiant smile behind them as he winked at her again. Jenny’s hearts did a drum solo.  
  
“Dad?” Jenny inquired, not taking her eyes off Neal.  
  
“Uhm,” her father muttered as his grip tightened around her hand.  
  
“Dad,” she hissed, tugging on his hand. Jenny glanced and saw a contemplative look in his eyes. Feeling frustrated with her father’s lack of action, Jenny answered, “That sounds great! We’d love to!”  
  
Finally, her father nodded and said, “Sure. Thank you...”  
  
“Neal,” he said, stretching out his hand to her father. “Neal Lee.” Her father shook it with his free hand.  
  
“Thank you, Neal,” Jenny said with a smile.  
  
Neal winked playfully at her.  
  
“Thank you, Neal,” her father said, more loudly than necessary, with a big grin that still didn't reach his eyes before gesturing for Neal to lead the way.   
  


oOo

  
  
The Doctor finished buttoning up the oversized jimjams that Neal’s mum had given him to wear, while his own clothes were being cleaned. He momentarily had a flashback to three Christmases ago, but when he fished around in the pockets and found no Satsumas, the Doctor felt slightly disappointed. He sighed, giving himself one last look in the sink’s small mirror. Then he turned to retrieve his spectacles from the bathroom counter. He stopped short due when a twinge of pain burned at his right side.  
  
Hissing loudly, the Doctor placed a hand on the sensitive spot. Despite his best efforts at pretending otherwise, his two lower ribs were still aching horribly since Jenny fallen on top of him. If he guessed, he’d have to say they were probably cracked.  
  
Initially, when he was in the fountain, they’d hurt too much to move, but the pain had vanished when Jenny had cried out for him. The pain receptors had shutdown allowing him to take action and help Jenny get out of the fountain safely. But now that the adrenaline was gone, his pain receptors were working overtime, urging him to sit down; he couldn’t deny he was tempted to just lie down on the bathroom floor and let unconsciousness take him. So he did slowly lower himself, but only on to the toilet seat.  
  
The Doctor drew in a ragged breath as he tried to relax his body. It needed time to heal. The healing process shouldn’t take long, but he’d have to rest in a stable position before the process could start. Right now was definitely not the time, but at least he could begin preparing himself. He continued to breathe deeply, trying to stop himself from doubling over. The Doctor leaned back against the back of the toilet and just let his eyes stare blankly at his reflection in the wall mirror. He looked a mess, but at least his pain wasn’t obvious on his face. There was no paleness or furrowed brow. His hair, on the other hand, was still messy and wet. He combed his finger through it, trying to get some order to it, but it felt fruitless and the raising his arms made him nauseous. It was probably his ribs, but the Doctor suspected it was due to the way Neal had been eyeing Jenny.  
  
There was definite flirting going on between them. It made the Doctor’s hearts clench at the thought, a worse feeling than his cracked ribs. He wasn’t sure why he felt this way, but he suspected that it was due to a fatherly protectiveness. It wasn’t necessarily something new to him, since he had been both a dad and grandad before, but that had been a long time ago.  
  
The second Neal had flashed a big goofy grin at Jenny and she’d blushed, the Doctor had felt fifty alarms going off in his head, telling him to put as much distance between Neal and Jenny and the sooner the better. That had become impossible once Jenny had got them invited to get their clothes cleaned by Mi, Neal’s mum. He sighed again as he ignored the pain and aggressively slicked his hair back. Then he heard a knock on the door.  
  
“Are you alright in there, Doctor Smith?” Neal asked from the other side.  
The Doctor grimaced at the fake name Jenny had given them and the cheerful tone of the flirting boy in question.   
  
“I’m fine,” the Doctor said dryly before slowly rising from the toilet seat. He gave one last look at himself, pocketed his glasses, and then put on his best ‘I’m fine’ smile. He opened the door and was greeted by a beaming Neal.  
  
“I was wondering if you might be hungry or would at least like something to warm yourself up,” he said before explaining, “It’s just that my mum’s made some tea and food for lunch.”  
  
The Doctor continued to give his ‘I’m fine’ smile. “That sounds like a nice offer. I hope we aren’t being an inconvenience to you and your mum.”

“Not at all, Doctor Smith,” Neal answered with a shake of his head. “This way.”  
  
Neal led the Doctor down some creaking stairs and through the narrow, white hallway that lead to a very small kitchen at the back of the dry cleaner’s shop. As the Doctor entered, he could already see Jenny sitting at the table wearing a long, white cotton nightgown. She kept fidgeting with the material, while a slender, Asian woman in a pink apron and a red, flower-patterned dress rushed about her, setting down plates before hurrying back to a large wok at a small gray stove.  
  
The Doctor took a seat and smiled at Jenny. “You okay?” he asked her.

She nodded with a half smile. “Mi was nice enough to make us some... what was is it again?”  
  
The slender woman in the pink apron turned a smile over her shoulder. “It’s Dimsum and Boiled pork with lotus root. Very good for you when get wet,” she said in a strong Mandarin accented voice before turning back to the stove.  
  
“Thank you, Mi,” the Doctor said. “I hope we aren’t inconveniencing you with all of this.”  
  
Over her shoulder, Mi replied, “Oh, not at all, Doctor Smith. It is the least I could do after what my son and his friends did.” Then she gave her son in question a glare.

Neal quickly looked apologetic again. He mumbled, “Sorry, sir.” Then he took a seat next to Jenny.  
  
Again the Doctor noticed that Neal and Jenny were exchanging sideways glances. Even as she sipped her tea, she peered at Neal with a blush on her cheeks. Those alarms were going off in the Doctor’s head again, but he bit his tongue and added a bit more sugar to his tea.   
  


oOo

  
  
Lunch with Mi and her son, Neal, went quite well. The Doctor had a chance to practice his Mandarin Chinese with Mi, and Jenny made a new friend out of Neal. Though, the Doctor’s alarms warned him that it might have been more when the young man dragged Jenny upstairs to his bedroom.  
  
It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jenny to look after herself. He’d seen firsthand her capabilities, but instinct told him to be cautious. He’d been like Neal once, when he was younger: all charm, smiles, and secret whispers. He also knew what young men like him often wanted.  
  
Luckily, Jenny wasn’t gone for more than  _35 minutes... 42 seconds... and 44 microseconds._  He made absolutely sure when he mentally counted, while listening to Mi's story about how she met her husband, what's-his-name.  
  
Soon the Doctor and Jenny were left alone in the kitchen, while Neal rushed out and Mi checked on their clothes. The Doctor sipped his tea silently with his eyes shut, while Jenny sat beside him flipping through an OK magazine that Mi had given her to read. For a good portion of an hour they both sat silently. It was good for the Doctor, since it was an adequately stationary and quiet position for him to start healing his broken ribs, but every time he started mediating his mind would wander back to Jenny.  
  
 _I wonder what she’s thinking. I wonder what she and Neal did upstairs. No, don’t think about that... don't even think like that. I’m sure they did nothing. Jenny doesn’t.... she wouldn’t... well....No, don’t even think about it. It isn’t your business what she did or didn’t do upstairs. I don’t even care... much... mostly... well, maybe a bit._  
  
The Doctor’s eyes partially flickered open and he gazed at her yet again. She seemed engrossed in the contents of the tabloid magazine.  
  
“Is something wrong?” she asked suddenly without raising her gaze from the magazine. The Doctor’s eyes snapped close and he pretended not to hear.  
  
“Dad?” Jenny’s voice had a questioning tone to it.  
  
“Oh, um, what?!” the Doctor said, trying to act as if he hadn’t heard her at all, but really he was taken aback. “Sorry, you say something?”  
  
“Oh, come on. You keep staring at me out of the corner of your eye when you think I’m not looking,” she said. Opening his eyes, the Doctor saw Jenny gazing at him with a playful smile on her lips.  
  
“No, I don’t,” he said, sounding as if he were insulted by her comment. Then he took a very long sip of his tea, trying to hide the lie dancing in his eyes.  
  
 _How can she know? It is impossible! No, she doesn’t know. It isn’t... possible. Of course... she is a Time Lord, so maybe she can... But no! No! She’s too young, too inexperienced... but then again... I did feel... in the fountain...No! She just can't..._  
  
“Yes, you did,” Jenny laughed, interrupting his thoughts and pulling his attention back to her. She closed the magazine and slid it out of the way.  
The Doctor quickly realised he wasn’t going to be able to push her off the subject. She was just as determined and stubborn as him. That’s what he got for having a child created by a progenation machine against his will with a sample of his DNA.  
  
So he sniffed and averted his eyes. “So what if I do?” he asked, finally admitting. “It is a free country... well, at least for another century any way.”  
  
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Jenny leaned her head on the palm of one of her hands and gazed at the Doctor. “You want to know what happened upstairs in Neal’s room, don’t you?”  
  
“No, I don’t care,” the Doctor said, sounding disgusted at the thought. Yet, his mind kept chanting, ‘yes, yes, yes!’  
  
“Well, I think you do,” Jenny told him. “And I’ll tell you nothing happened... much.”  
  
That caught the Doctor’s attention. A split second after Jenny said that, his gaze snapped in her direction and he fixed her with wide-eyed glare. A flash of anger flickered over his face, but he bit his tongue to allow Jenny to continue.  
  
“He tried to kiss me,” Jenny said nonchalantly. Her gaze fell slightly for a moment before snapping up to meet his, as if she wanted to see how he reacted to her words.  
  
“He what?!” the Doctor growled. There was fire filling his veins and just enough adrenaline had returned to make any pain in his abdomen disappear, but one word kept him from jumping out his seat and hunting down Neal. “Wait, what do you mean ‘tried?’”  
  
“Like it sounds,” Jenny said with a mirth-filled smile as she picked at a piece of dried lotus root on the table cloth. “We were talking and then all of a sudden he leans in and tries to kiss me, and I said no. So we sat and talked about football and England and whatever before he tries again... several times, mind you. He was quite persistent. He even tried to tell me that it was just a kiss... it was completely natural for us to ‘make-out,’ as he put it, like that would convince me, and so when he tried the last time, I... I hit him. That’s why he left straight way. I don’t think he took too kindly to being rejected.”  
  
She winked mischievously at the Doctor, who was wearing a very happy and relieved grin. “Brilliant! I completely disapprove of hitting, but still brilliant” the Doctor congratulated before hugging her. When a twinge of pain flared across his abdomen, he pulled back with a small, forced smile.  
  
A moment later Jenny's own smile fell away and she gave him a perplexed look. Her lips parted to say something, but, as before, she seemed hesitant.  
  
“What?” he asked her, leaning back into a comfortable position in the chair.  
  
“Nothing,” Jenny said hurriedly, letting her gaze drop to the dried lotus root again. She picked at it for a minute and the uncomfortable silence set in again. Then in a soft, serious voice she asked, “So how long before we have to be back at Donna’s place for the family dinner?” There was disgusted tone to her voice. She sounded less than enthusiastic about having dinner with Donna’s family, which made him smile a bit.  
  
 _The more I spend with you, the more similarities I find between us. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but I am,_  he thought.   
  
The Doctor said, looking at the kitchen clock, “Well according to that we have more than four hours still.”  
  
Jenny groaned, her shoulders drooping. “So what will we do until then?” she asked.  
  
The Doctor paused and considered her question. Donna had mentioned museums as a good place for father-daughter fun time, but he’d already been to all of the modern day ones in London, but maybe Jenny wanted to go to one of them.  
  
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and said unenthusiastically, “We could go visit a London museum. That could take some time up.”  
  
“That sounds quite boring,” Jenny sighed, resting her chin on her hands but meeting his gaze again.  
  
“It does, doesn’t it... unless,” the Doctor said as an idea formed in his mind. “Unless...”  
  
 _We could always visit a museum in Earth’s future or on another planet, but which one? Which one would Jenny enjoy the most?_  
  
“What do you mean, Dad?” Jenny asked.  
  
 _Let’s see. I could take her to one on the military history of Earth or the legendary conquests of humans during their colonisations of space, but that’s boring to me, and I really don’t want to encourage her to be anymore militaristic. If anything she needs to be more… enlightened._  
  
“Dad?” Jenny said, tapping his shoulder.  
  
“Oh, I’m just thinking about where and when we should go,” the Doctor answered as he rubbed his chin, looking off into the distance.  
  
“Where and when?” Jenny said questionably, sounding alarmed. “Dad, you’re not suggesting we take the TARDIS?”  
  
“Oh, yes!” the Doctor answered before snapping his fingers. The answer was easy. He mentally scolded himself for not thinking of it sooner. “And I think I’ve just thought of the perfect museum for you.”  
  
“It’s not that I’m not curious and want to visit, but if Donna finds out, she’ll be furious,” Jenny stated.  
  
A huge manic grin spread over his face and in a whispered voice he said, “I know.”  
  
Jenny looked at him in a truly baffled way. The Doctor was afraid she’d refuse and tell him off for disobeying Donna, but after all, she was his daughter.  
  
A moment later, Jenny wore a matching grin. “Let’s do it, Dad,” she whispered back with a mischievous giggle.  
  
 _To be continued…_


	4. Lost Museum

Once they had changed back into their clothes, the Doctor and Jenny thanked Mi for everything, and then, bid her a quick goodbye before rushing back to where they’d parked the TARDIS. It was less than a block away from Donna’s place, so they had to be stealthy approaching the time capsule. They were afraid of being spotted by Donna or one of her relatives, but luck was on their side; there wasn’t anyone in the front yard when they snuck towards the TARDIS.

“See! What did I say, piece of cake.” Her father smirked at her as he unlocked the TARDIS door. She smiled back, noticing he was still giving Donna's house a nervous glance. “Now get in quick!” She had just made it up the ramp when he dashed by her and up to the console.

A moment later the central column was set into motion and her father was running around the console, adjusting controls and setting coordinates. All the time there was a gleeful grin on his face. Jenny couldn’t help but match it

_Just like an energetic and enthusiastic kid,_  Jenny thought, _I wish I knew how he finds the energy to be that way all the time. I wonder if he’s always been like this or..._

“Easy peasy,” he laughed, interrupting her thoughts, “just like sneaking off Gallifrey with the TARDIS the first time. The Citadel guards walked by me, never even knew I was there. Master of stealth, that’s me. No one, but I mean no one, out sneaks me. Ha!” He struck a large button with the mallet attached to the console.

Yet, Jenny barely noticed his actions as his words caught her attention. He barely ever mentioned the name of his home planet, not to mention anything about his past. Maybe this meant he was starting to feel more open to speaking about the Time Lords with her. She leaned against the console and gave him a curious look, “You snuck off your own home planet?”

Her father beamed at her as he hit a rotating wheel on the console, sending it into a mad spin. “Oh, yeah," he replied as the ship jolted slightly left then right. "I've done it loads of times.” The ship gave another violent shake as he winked at her. “The High Council and Panoptican guards didn’t stand a chance! Ha!”

“But why?” she asked, starting to move around the console towards him. “Why did you leave Gallifrey?”

“Weeellll,” he said in drawn out way. He now avoided meeting her gaze as his hands moved over the console in a random motion. “There were plenty of reasons. The first time I sort of had to... I was exiled and later...“ Her father shrugged his shoulders before going quiet. Then he started moving around the console, putting distance between them.

“Didn’t you like it there?” Jenny asked, following after him. She wanted to know more, but he seemed reluctant. The uncomfortable silence was returning. “What is wrong with Gallifrey? Is it...”

His gaze rose to finally meet hers. There was that forced smile again; the one that never seemed to reach his eyes. Instead of answering her questions, her father told her, “I suggest you change your clothes, Jenny, we’ll be there soon and you don’t want to go exploring in that, but don’t put your dress away. You’ll need to put it back on when we’re done and have to face the Nobles.”

Jenny opened her mouth to ask again, but when he’s gaze snapped back down to the console, she thought better and simply nodded. “Sure, Dad. I’ll just go do that.”

She turned and headed toward the hallway door. There Jenny momentarily paused and peered back at her father. He was still standing at the spot she’d left him, now staring intently at the glowing time rotor. She drew in a deep breath, just watching him for a few seconds, before continuing to the changing room.

oOo

Sometime later Jenny stepped out of the TARDIS into a low lit area. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. Slowly the form of a wide, carpeted hallway came into view.

“Where are we?” she asked, calling over her shoulder as she tentatively stepped away from the TARDIS.

“Museum, like I said,” her father’s voice rang out of the time capsule.

She chuckled at the obvious and completely unhelpful answer. Clearly, it was his subtle way of telling her to find out for herself. Jenny’s eyes first glanced down at the floor, which was covered in a thick, dark crimson carpet. It looked like something from 21st Century Earth, except there seemed to be a subtle shimmer woven into its fibres, which made the floor bright and visible in the low lighting.

“So definitely later than the 21st Century,” Jenny said to herself.

“Good guess,” her father congratulated. She turned back and saw him leaning on the TARDIS doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. “Well, go on. When do you think we are?”

Jenny put on her best thoughtful look. She decided to call it her ‘inquisitive Doctor’ look since she’d seen her father use the same one when he was intently examine the TARDIS console or some alien object. “Hmm,” she said strolling toward the left wall. Her gaze moved over the smooth surface. It looked to be made of a slightly illuminate, black material. However, the displays spaced in front of and in some places on the wall were what interested Jenny the most.

On the side she was currently on, Jenny saw occasional lit display cases and wall murals. She stepped closer to one of the glass cases, which stood about her height on a steel-like base, and saw that lit within it was a large, elaborate mask. It resembled the face of a creature with huge wooden fangs. The large eye holes of the painted facade were adorned with a border of sparkling gold strips and attached to the rim of the oval shaped mask were a variety of long, coloured feathers.

“Definitely a museum,” Jenny said, tapping the glass.

“Yes, I think we’ve covered that,” he said, sounding annoyed. She could hear the sound of his footsteps as he approached from behind her.

“Just checking,” she chimed, glancing over her shoulder and grinning widely before turning toward the other side of the hallway. At varying intervals along this wall, going in both directions of the hallway, were indents that curved into the wall and in front of several of them there were waist-high, black metallic railings.

“I’ll give you a hint,” he whispered into her left ear. “We’re later than the Earth year 50,000.”

She glanced at him, giving him acquisitive look. “So almost from the same time I came from?”

“Well,” he replied, scratching the back of his neck, “definitely later than the 61st Century.”

“Okay,” Jenny said. They both approached one of the indents in the wall, but he stayed just behind her. She examined the indent’s odd shape. It was much like Jenny imagined it would be like to gaze into a dark cave or pit, sans the rocky edge.

As she thought about that, a low growling noise emanated from depths of the indent, pulling her attention into the darkness. She squinted and leaned further forward. She could just start to make out shrubby inside. Leaning even further past the railing, she tried to find the source of the sound. It had to be an animal or a device, she suspected. 

_Yet, wouldn’t an animal requires more than a railing to keep it in_ , she pondered to herself. But her thoughts were interrupted again as Jenny noticed something moving amongst the darkened foliage. Two glowing yellow eyes shimmered threateningly through the darkness.

“What is that?” Jenny asked.

Her father didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to. Her answer came rushing in the form of a huge lion-like creature. Jenny gasped just as the creature leapt at her with its claws extended and its jaws opened wide.

Jenny screamed, jumping to one side and into the arms of her father.

“Ow!” he gasped as her elbow connected with his side. “Oh, gentle there.”

She looked fearfully at her father, ready to tell him that they needed to run, when she noticed a playful smile still on his lips.

“What?” he asked blissfully. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of concern on his face.

Jenny looked back at the indent and saw the creature was remaining behind the railing, but what was keeping it there?

“Don’t worry it’s a hologram,” he said, gesturing toward the creature which was now pacing the railing. It was still looking at them with a look of hunger glistening in its eyes, but now, looking closely, Jenny could see it was ever so slightly flickering. “It can’t hurt you, Jenny.”

“But it looked so real,” she said as he guided her back toward it. “It even acted like it was real.”

“Well, in a way it is,” he explained. “In the year 80,378, Dr. Yerns Micholas Strafordia, humanoid time traveller and temporal anthropologist, and his team travelled through time to visit many planets in the known universe to see creatures, people, and cultures that had become extinct. He hoped to gather information and historical records to keep their memory alive. After his death in 80,588, several more anthropologists continued his work to bring even more planets' histories here... well, until the year one billion. The destruction of Earth brought about a whole new movement, but before then many anthropologists and philanthropists were solely focused on capturing the behaviours and representations of subjects from all over the known universe, so that they could be replicated in these holographic forms.”

“Really? Animals... and people?” Jenny asked.

Her father nodded, taking her hand. “Come on, let me show you,” he said as he tugged her over to the next indented area along the hallway. As they moved away from the giant cat, Jenny noticed it disappeared back into the indent, vanishing like a shadow. As they reached the next indent, it came to life.

A brightly lit holographic scene of a dusty village appeared before them. She stared wide-eyed at the scene as people, wearing heavy woolly outfits but no foot coverings, moved about, in and out of view.

The sound of birds and people talking echoed out from the scene as Jenny’s eyes locked on one group about two meters back from her and her father. There were five darkly coloured females kneeling around a large, boiling pot. Two of them were tossing in white, vegetable-like items into it as they chanted a strange mixture of words. Another two were stirring the pot with a long wooden stick. The last female was a young girl with long, dark, braided hair covered in colourful beads. She didn’t look that much older than Jenny and currently the young girl was busy placing more sticks on to the fire beneath the boiling pot.

“That’s amazing!” Jenny commented, leaning forward. Her eyes were wide as she took in the scene. She swore she could even smell the soup or whatever it was that they were making.

Suddenly, the young girl placing the sticks on the fire turned toward Jenny. Jenny’s smile fell as the girl blinked at her before smiling back. The girl waved at Jenny, and instinctively, Jenny waved back.

“She seems so real,” Jenny said. “She even reacts to me.”

“That’s what they call interactive,” her father told her before he waved at the young girl too. “Part of the programming is to react as if they were in their natural environments.”

“Oh,” said Jenny, suddenly very interested.

She had to admit she knew so little about history outside of the military kind that was downloaded into her brain by the progenation machine. But this was quite different, and she liked it. There was mystic and simple beauty about all of it. Jenny wondered if this scene was very different from other planets' cultures and civilisations. 

Glancing at her father, she noticed he was still watching the dusty village scene or at least pretending to. Looking closely, she could see his gaze was partially still on her, just as it had been in Mi's kitchen. She nudged him gently, jostling him. “So,” she said with a smirk.

“Hmm?” he said, gazing down at her with a raised eyebrow as if he'd just noticed her by his side.

She wanted to call him on his side way glances again, but instead she focused on the museum. “So as far as the hologram knows she still in her village in...” Jenny said, leaning closer to stare at the plaque on the wall left of the indent, “sorry ... on Rellium.”

“Yep,” he said. “It’s a nifty way to capture children’s interest in learning. In fact, if we wait here long enough she’ll come over and talk to us. Depending on the visitor approaching the indent and random design program of the holographic display, different people from this representation will come over to speak to you.”

“So what would she say?” inquired Jenny, gazing back at the girl as she removed the last stick from her armload before looking back at Jenny, still with a smile on her lips.

“Well, we can ask her questions about herself, her people, her planet, almost anything we can think of. She might even strike up a conversation representative of somebody her age during this time period on Rellium.” Her father pointed at the plaque Jenny had been looking at. He ran his finger along the fine print at the bottom of it. “But one thing to remember is that they aren’t real. They’re all computer-generated holograms. Never aging, never changing... and limited by their programming memory.”

Jenny stepped back a bit from the railing. Immediately the girl looked to lose interest in Jenny, and she started to head out of view. “What is this museum, Dad?” she inquired.

“This is one of the most unique museums in the universe,” he said, making a wide gesture. “Not only is it located on an orbiting station around the second moon of Niseum IV, but also it holds some of the only examples of ancient cultures and people not seen in millenniums. This, Jenny, is the Museum of Lost History. Almost everything that has disappeared or become extinct in the universe is remembered in one way or another here.”

“Oh,” said Jenny as realisation hit her. “So this is a place of the forgotten past.”

“Yep!” he confirmed, burying his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels.

“But then why is the museum so empty?” she asked, glancing up and down the hallway. There was no one else in sight. She didn’t even hear any other voices besides theirs and those emanating from the holographic scene. “I’d have thought people would be clamouring to see things that you couldn’t see anywhere else. To see all those things, which came before, but were forgotten?”

Instantly, her father stopped rocking on his heels and sighed deeply. “But forgotten is the key,” he said with a glum expression. “Like the items and memories held within these hollowed walls, the Museum of Lost History too has been forgotten.” He shook his head as he moved down the hallway with Jenny following after him.

As they continued forward, Jenny watched each indent they passed. She saw more people performing the daily activities of their cultures. She saw all sorts of creatures, including larger-than-life holograms of microbes and huge animals, larger than any whale, which rode the interstellar winds of deep space. They turned a corner and passed under an archway with the words ‘Mactus Prime’ engraved on it. Beyond, a new line of indents came into view.

“Another exhibit, another lost planet,” her father said, gesturing to the first indent. It was filled with rainforest-like scenery that echoed with the sounds of birds and insects.

“It’s beautiful,” Jenny said.

“And a shame,” he commented. “People of the year one billion and 300 hundred just don’t have interest in the past like they use to. They’re focused on the future and where it will take them.”

“So no one comes here?” Jenny asked.

“Well, some come now and then, mostly scholars, but not enough to warrant the presence of a staff or updates,” he said, before stepping up on to a platform. Jenny followed him up. On the wall next to the platform was a small wall-mounted computer. He pointed to it. “Now only machines like this one keep track of the valuable pieces of history stored here, keep them clean with cleaning bots and monitor the recycle-ventilation system.” He clicked a button on the computer and a second later the screen came to life. Across it appeared the words:

_Museum of Lost History_

Underneath the title a message appeared on the screen, ‘Please enter inquiry.’

“From here, you can find any specific exhibit or culture or cultural significant person or display in the museum,” her father said before turning a smile towards her. “So do you have anything in mind you’d like to check out while we’re here?” His eyebrows bobbed up and down as he again rocked back and forth on his heels

Jenny cocked her head to the side and thought about it. Here she was in a museum that held information and representations of millions, perhaps billions, of different planets’ cultures and people. She was a girl who knew so little about history with the opportunity to learn so much. All she had to do was type in a few words – it was like opening a chest of secrets, a regular lost treasure.

Jenny beamed as she approached the computer, but there she paused. She didn’t know where or what to start looking at. She bit her lip and looked back at her father, but he said nothing.

“Perhaps...,” she said to him. “I could find out what became of the Messaline exhibition team?”

He nodded. “You could do that,” he admitted with a wink.

She turned back, but as her fingers touched the key pad a feeling of doubt filled her. Yes, she was interested in finding out what happened to Messaline, but it wasn’t at the top of her mind. It hadn’t been since she’d left it. No, when Jenny really thought about it, there was really only one world, one people she wanted to learn about.

Gallifrey, a world lost in time and space, which Jenny had only imagined in her dreams. Ever since her father told her about the Time Lords on Messaline, Jenny knew she wanted to learn everything she could about them. Where to better to look than in the Museum of the Lost History? This place had to have some record of them.

Without second guessing her choice again, Jenny chose the search criteria of ‘people’ and typed in ‘Time Lords,’ – the search found no results. When she switched to culture criteria and used the term ‘Time Lords’ still nothing came up.

Jenny’s brow furrowed. She tried entering a search criteria for the planet of ‘Gallifrey,’ but still nothing appeared to be in the system. Over and over Jenny tried different terms she had heard her father use, including ‘Lords of Time,’ ‘High Council of Gallifrey,’ ‘Gallifreyan,’ and ‘TARDIS’ and different search criteria, but the computer kept insisting there wasn’t anything there. It was like they'd never existed, and she knew that wasn't true.

Jenny swore under her breath with a frown creasing he face. She’s about ready to give up and just type in Messaline, until out of the corner of her eye she saw a small metal rod appear. She looked and saw her father grinning at her.

“Here try this,” the Doctor said, handing over his sonic screwdriver. “It’s a master key to almost everything.”

He winked at her as she accepted it. Pressing it against the keyboard and activating the device, the computer screen flashed through several screens and suddenly the inquiry flickered to a confirmation. A huge smile spread over Jenny's face as an option appeared. A picture of a burnt orange planet with a golden halo around it appeared with the words: Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords, underneath it.

Then her smile fell away and Jenny snapped around, giving her father a perplexed and awed look.

“You knew?” she said more as statement then a question. “How could...” Her brow furrowed as she stared at him in wonderment “Why...? Is that why you chose this place?”

He smiled, taking the sonic screwdriver back from her and putting it back into his interior coat pocket. “Of course, I knew,” he said with a sniff of insult. He left it at that before nodding toward the screen.

Turning back to it, Jenny saw a new inquiry asking, ‘Is this the exhibit you want to visit?’

Jenny looked briefly back at her father who immediately nodded his approval. She smiled and clicked ‘yes.’ A second later, a bright white light engulfed both of them.

_To be continued..._


	5. Forgotten People

When the blinding light cleared, Jenny found herself on one side of an expansive white hall that towered above her and stretched in all directions. Her father stood beside her, seeming to watch her reactions to their new surroundings. 

Jenny stepped down from the raised, transmat platform on to a white marble floor. The bang of her boots striking the octagonal titles echoed in the wide openness. She chuckled at the sound before she spun around, transfixed by the amphitheatre-like room. Slowly, she backed further into the white room, noticing the finer details of the white stone and marble that formed the smooth walls and curving arches surrounding her. The structure and radiance of the room was like nothing she’d ever encountered or heard about in her short life. She had the military archive memories, but those were mostly orientated on how best to combat an enemy. Her father had taken her to a limited number of places and he and Donna had told her stories about other worlds, but that didn't compare to all of this.

She turned again and moved towards the centre of the white room. It was marked by a slender, towering tree covered in silver leaves. Jenny leisurely strolled around as she noted the glitter of the tree’s pear-shaped leaves. “It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed, circling back to her father’s side of the luscious tree.

“It was known as the Tree of Gallifrey,” he told her. Jenny glanced over her shoulder and saw he had moved forward on to the almost smooth marble floor, but he still remained near one of the white walls. “Rassilon declared it would be the only species of tree allowed within a sanctuary of the Time Lords.”

“Who’s Rassilon?” Jenny inquired, turning her full attention back towards her father. This was a new name to her: one that he'd never mentioned before.

His lips parted as if to answer, but then she saw hesitance flickering in his eyes. His gaze dropped as he shook his head. “No one of importance,” he replied. Jenny watched as her father swallowed a few times before raising his gaze with the same smile that never seemed to reach his eyes. He gestured upward. “So what do you think of the ceiling?”

Following his gesture, Jenny saw a glowing wide dome covered in thousands of clear, curving glass panels that were lined with elaborate golden spiralled frames: each of which was unique from the rest. Through the glass panels Jenny could see a burnt orange sky, and she swore she could hear the soft twitter of birds and the gentle whistle of wind just beyond the glass.

“It’s absolutely wonderful!” she commented enthusiastically.

“Yes, isn’t it though,” her father commented softly.

This was beyond what she had ever imagined for her father’s home planet. Of course, she’d imagined something elegant and breathtaking, probably much like the paradise General Cobb spoke of when referencing the legends of the Source, but this... this was nothing like that. Even with the bits and pieces of information her father had told her and Donna, she still couldn’t have ever imagined such an angelic and radiant place. It was so much brighter and grander than Messaline. Even the TARDIS seemed a complete opposite with its warm organic atmosphere. Earth wasn’t as far off, but then again, there was a more peaceful calmness here than the human’s home planet. Jenny was glad it was something beyond her imagination to come up with; it made the experience of seeing it that much more fulfilling. She dared to compare the emotions she felt here to the unbelievable joy of returning home after such a long time.

Jenny giggled, covering her mouth as her gaze slid back down the curving arches of the white room. Slowly turning around, Jenny counted twenty-two towering, white stone pillars at each of the different angles of the room. Between them were pearly-white stone statues or busts upon stout white bases, except on one of the walls. On that wall was the subtle outline of a closed archway that said in red letters ‘Exit’ above it. Leaving was far from Jenny’s mind, so she instead walked towards one of the tall white statues.

Like each stone figure in the expansive dome, it was human-sized and very well carved, particularly the facial features. This statue was that of a tall, slender woman with a small but prominent nose, wide eyes, and elaborately styled hair crowned in a glittering gold headdress, which was an intricate web of interlocked thin, golden, beaded strands. Yet, as lovely as the headdress was and as beautiful as the woman looked, it was the high, strangely curving collar behind her head that captivated Jenny more. The collar seemed to arch upward and outward at the same time before squeezing in tightly around the woman’s neck, forcing her to look only forward.

Absent-mindedly, Jenny rubbed her neck as she imagined having to wear such a piece of clothing. It looked far too restrictive and very problematic when the woman had to move about quickly. Even the floor length gown that went with it would be a hazard when running and dodging. She looked around at the other stone figures and realised that every statute and bust had the same collar and gown combo.

_I wonder why they all are wearing the same style of clothing. There seems to be little difference between men and women and even between the different ages. Perhaps it has to do with their positions in the Time Lord Society. Maybe all these people were_   _rulers or leaders, and that’s why all of them are dressed the same?_

“Father,” Jenny inquired, looking to him for answers. “Are these statues of political or military leaders?”

“Definitely not military, well, at least not the way you’re thinking,” he replied, tilting his head side to side. “But yes, a few were once the President of Gallifrey. But most, um, I believe are just depictions of influential members the Prydonian Chapter of the Time Lord Academy. Basically, they are all sort of Time Lords that the Chapter considered important and worth remembering.” Jenny noted a tone of sarcasm to his voice, which only heightened her desire to learn more.

“Oh,” Jenny said simply before letting a thoughtful expression cross her face. “Then the purpose of dressing the same was.... what?” She continued to look around at the rest and started to notice that every statue had the same serious, frowning expression as well. “And why are they all modelled almost the same?”

“Keeps things in nice order, I suppose,” he answered before pausing. His brow furrowed as if in thought. “To be honest, I never really asked anyone. I never had to go through the ordeal of modelling, thank Rassilon.” He smirked, and once again, the smile didn’t reach his soft brown eyes.

_There’s that name again. Rassilon. Who is that? Or who was he or she.... or it? Whoever... or whatever_ Rassilon _was, obviously it is a touchy subject with Dad. But why? As tempted as I am to ask again, it’s probably better I don’t ask for now. Best I just focus on something else, until Dad feels bit more comfortable to talk about his people. Anyway, didn’t Dad say something about order? That doesn’t sound anything like him._

“Order?” Jenny asked as she slowly walked past a few more statues. She kept her gaze trained on them instead of her father. “You mean they wanted uniformity: everything the same and such.”

When she didn’t hear him answer, Jenny turned towards her father. He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before meeting her gaze. He shrugged quickly but nodded his agreement with her statement.

Jenny’s eyes narrowed as his answer only created more questions in her mind. “So what, Time Lords didn’t like uniqueness? Or had they never heard of the concept of individualism?” she asked, her gaze flickering across the stone figures again.

She had just reached the other side of the room, when she heard her father chuckling. Jenny stopped in place and gazed through a gap in the branches filled with silver leaves to give her father a perplexed look. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“This criticism on 'what is uniqueness?' is coming from a gun totting girl grown into a militaristic society where order and uniformity is part and par with fighting. A regular GI Jane you are,” he commented with a part smile.

A half smile spread over her lips and then she raised an eyebrow. “Alright, fine,” Jenny accepted.

_He’s teasing me... and being excessively rude as well. Almost hurtful, but I’m sure he doesn’t mean to... I mean I don’t think so. I hope not. No, of course he’s not. He does the same thing to Donna and Martha, particularly when he’s trying to avoid a topic. Is that what he’s doing now? Only one way to know for sure and that’s to press forward..._ _and playing his game is the only way to do that._

Jenny crossed her arms over her chest and she flashed him a shrewd look. “But, Father, the exhibition team on Messaline was being uniform to keep order in a dangerous combat situation. What’s the Time Lords' excuse? Fear of the fashion police?” she joked.

Her father’s smile grew a bit as he shook his head, but he didn’t reply.

Jenny pointed to the clothing on the statue closest to her. “These uniforms... outfits... whatever they are... are certainly impractical. I mean no movement in the neck area to see who’s on either side of you and there’s definitely no easy way to see if someone is sneaking up from behind. That’s just dangerous! It leaves you vulnerable to attack... you have to have noticed that, Father,” Jenny commented with a furrowed brow. “As for the gown, ugh, besides looking like one of those horribly long dresses Donna was trying to get me to wear... these gowns are way too long and encompassing... not even a trained soldier could run and fight in those things. How can anyone move about in them, particularly when you need to defend yourself? I mean, you never know when you might need to fight, right?” She gazed at her father hoping for some sort of answer.

Her father puffed out his cheeks and blew out a long breath of air. Jenny thought he looked like he wanted to say something but was resisting the urge, which really irritated her. While she didn’t like when he was excessively rude towards her, she preferred it to the times he was quiet. So when he inclined his head left and then right as if considering her comments, Jenny waited impatiently for him to speak. But he still, didn’t say a word.

She shifted her gaze from him to the current statue she was in front of; it was a stout man with a round face and slight puffs of fluffy hair protruding from under a skull cap. Jenny slowly moved closer to get a better look at the stone features as she tried another approach to getting an answer from her father.

“If these stone people aren’t all from the same societal position, as you said... then what possible reason would they have to be in the same uniforms? I mean on Messaline, people’s ranks and responsibilities are indicated by clothing. Your friend, Martha Jones, even said that different types of people on Earth wear different clothes: doctors have uniforms different than soldiers and the leaders of her world. But from this,” she said, once more gesturing to the outfit of the statue before her, “I’m assuming Time Lords didn’t?”

When she heard him cough, Jenny couldn’t help the smile that spread over her face. That had broken his silence. She turned her attention back towards him, giving him her most attentive, wide-eye look.

“Well, Gallifrey did have something similar,” he said, slowly moving toward the Tree of Gallifrey and closer to her. “Not everyone dressed this way all the time. It was, as you said, impractical when one was doing tasks in a laboratory or other manual labour.”

Jenny cocked her head to the side and gave her father an inquisitive look. “Did you have to wear that... that thing, Father?”

Her father nodded. “On more than one occasion,” he said. “More than I care to remember definitely. That’s why I tried to find as little reason to wear it. How do you think I got so good at working with me hands?” He waved the fingers of his left hand at her, flashing a huge grin.

A huge grin spread over Jenny’s face in response. He was actually telling her something about himself. She found the notch into learning about the person her father was and is, so she continued to press forward with her line of questioning. “Oh, yes, Father” she said, desperately holding in her enthusiasm. “And was the outfit as uncomfortable as it looks?”

“More than you can imagine,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. There was a look in his eyes as if he was recalling the experiences.

Jenny slowly moved in his direction as she went on with her line of questioning. “Why would someone like you... or anyone want to or have to wear it?”

“Oh, there were various reasons,” he said, burying his hands in his pockets again. “Promotion to ranks like President or High Council meant it was required all the time... out of reverence for your new and  _supposedly_  exalted status.” He guffawed before continuing. “Then of course, others I use to know liked to wear them to show off that they’d gone to a specific Academy Chapter. A bit too prideful of their  _supposedly_ superior education and grades.”

Then he whipped his left hand out of his pocket and pointed his pointer finger at her, shaking it to emphasize his words. “Trust me when I say this, Jenny, tests... and grades mean nothing. No matter if you graduate top of your class or... or just barely scrap by... there is no difference. Passing at the bottom of your class is still passing!”

Jenny’s left eyebrow rose up her forehead as she looked at her father in complete confusion. “What does the level you finish in school have to do with when you wear the outfit?” she asked slowly.

Her father suddenly looked very uncomfortable as a slight redness coloured his face. He quickly slipped his pointing left hand back into his pocket and turned on his heel away from her. “Nothing,” he said quickly, moving around to a different side of the towering tree. He shifted his gaze solely onto one of the stone figures as if he found something interesting about that one. “Nothing at all.” He coughed. “What were we talking about again?”

She grinned at him with a knowing look. Jenny had a feeling her father might have just given away another piece of information about himself. Slowly, Jenny moved around the tree, closer to him as he continued.

“Ah, right,” he said, still not meeting her gaze, “when normal people – who aren’t overachievers and High Council suck-ups – wear their robes. Right, well, that usually only happens when the big events both personally and socially happen, well, society norms you know.... it was unfortunately mandatory for both.” He sighed deeply. “Like at one’s bonding ceremony.”

“So the clothing combo was a uniform then,” Jenny said, beaming at her father.

He glanced over his shoulder at her with a raised eyebrow. “I suppose... of sorts, yes. It was a way for Time Lords to stand out amongst others.... as I was once told by an old teacher of mine.”

“You mean  _stand out_ by looking like everyone else in their society?” Jenny teased, stepping closer to a stone statue three down from her father. She gave him a cheeky grin. “How very contradictory!”

Her father’s eyes narrowed on her before coldly moving up and down her form. “Says the obedient grown soldier who’s a little genetic enigma of her own,” he said in a serious tone.

Jenny knew he was most likely teasing her yet again and part of her wanted to laugh at his joke, but the remark hit deep. She bit back the pain. She held in the rising anger throbbing in her head. Instead she stuck her tongue out at him, pretending to take the jest for what she hoped it was. Then quickly she turned her attention towards the closest stone figure, hiding the pain and fire in her glistening eyes.

_He didn’t mean it. He’s just being rude; you’ve seen how he is with the others... I’m... I’m sure that’s all. He even insults Donna... but he’s never called her names... and he does it to me with more fervour, as if he can’t stand to think of me as... as any part of him, anything worth his time... and definitely not something he wants to admit relation to. Maybe he really doesn’t see me as his daughter. Maybe he does wish I didn’t exist..._

Jenny bit her tongue and shut her eyes, willing the tears to vanish, but instead a dull ache started to grow in her stomach. She felt an urge to, at the same time, yell something excessively rude back at him and fall to her knees and cry. She drew in a ragged breath as she tried to focus on the stone figure in front of her, but her mind was still in turmoil.

_This is silly, I’m just over reacting. Breathe! Just breathe! No reason to lose your head. Soldiers don't cry... and they certainly don't lose their temper so easily. So don't even think of crying. It’s against regulation number... number something or other... and... and..._

A thought suddenly floated through her mind.

_I wonder if Time Lords are allowed to cry._

It was her father’s voice that finally pulled her out of her thoughts. “Jenny...” he said suddenly in a much softer voice, but he didn’t continue or perhaps she interrupted him; Jenny wasn’t completely sure.

For one second she couldn’t find the strength to speak normally and the next she couldn’t stop herself. “So... so, Father... these uniforms... robes, they were all the same, huh?” Jenny pressed, shakily running her left pointer finger along the curve of the statue’s high collar as she felt ever muscle in her body tense. Jenny just tried to focus her thoughts on anything other besides the pain she felt.

“Unfortunately,” her father said with less enthusiasm.

Jenny nodded slowly before frowning at the serious faced bust. “Then I think I understand,” she said as her voice slightly trembled.

“How’s that?” her father asked, standing someplace behind her.

The muscles in her face tightened as she wiped her childish tears quickly from her eyes. “I can see why then, you ran from Gallifrey so many times,” Jenny said, biting back the urge to go off topic. “They must have been a truly boring society.”

“Well, I suppose... at times...” he agreed with an unsure tone to his voice.

But Jenny could no longer hold in the fire burning inside of her; it was starting to consume her. She cut her father off and spat angrily, “Of course, they were! A horribly limit-minded group of people whose art was unbelievably unimaginative. No wonder their enemies were easily able to wipe them from existence.”

Even as the words tumbled from her lips Jenny instantly regretted them. She’d just crossed that line between snarky and downright insulting, and she knew she had done it out of anger more than for the sake of a joke. Biting down very hard on her lip, making it bleed she was sure, Jenny fearfully looked towards her father. “I’m sorry, Father, I shouldn’t have said that. I... I...”

Her father did not reply. He didn’t even blink. His face was without a single expression, only the subtlest of hint from his clenched jaw told Jenny he wasn’t happy, but was he angry or sad? She couldn’t tell. He didn’t speak, only watched her intently.

“I mean,” she said, before swallowing hard and starting to turn fully towards him. She was desperately trying to think of some way to smooth over the hole she’d dug herself into and while not closing down the line of communication that was finally developing between them. “What I mean to say, Father, is... um... I mean no offence or anything. What I’m trying to say is... is you are so completely different from this place. Well, no, that’s not completely true. What I mean is when I look at all this stuff around me and listen to you describe this peaceful ruled and ordered society and it just doesn’t fit with you.”

One of his eyebrows gradually rose up his forehead, but her father said nothing, so she went on.

“Before on Messaline and on the TARDIS and on Earth... um... when you spoke of them, the Time Lords, of Gallifrey... I had assumed that... well, that all Time Lords were like you,” Jenny explained before making a wide gesture to the white room around them, “but... but you’re nothing like them.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said suddenly in a monotone voice. His gaze didn’t waver from her.

“How can you be one of them then?” she asked, giving him another nervous look. Jenny was glad he was finally speaking again, but she worried how long she could keep him going.

Her father’s blank look slowly drooped to a deep frown as his head dipped. He drew in a long ragged breath. “Well, not all of Time Lords were like that... uniform and bland... and narrow minded. In fact, I’d go so far to say some of them were quite... charming at times, in human standards. But much like the military society you were grown into, the society of the Time Lords expected conformity and order.”

“What about individualism?” Jenny asked.

“Oh, there was individualism,” her father said, once more moving around the room. “Free-thinking was allowed, but it wasn’t encouraged and nurtured like it is among most human societies.”

“But how...” Jenny asked him, sounding confused, “could he...” She inclined her head toward the statue in front of her before gesturing around at the other statues and busts, “they have ever developed without it... encouraging it?”

“They didn’t,” he simply said as his gaze remained fixed on the ground he continued to stroll over.

“But that doesn’t make sense... I mean, it doesn’t sound like you at all,” Jenny pointed out, daring to raise her voice again. “How can they be the people you spoke about before? How can they be...?”

“The all mighty Time Lords,” he finished for her. He sounded more than slightly unimpressed by the name, and yet there was also a tone of sadness to his words. Jenny feared her words had hurt him as deeply as his had done to her, so she tried to move him on to another topic, not clothing related. Her hands shifted to a clasped position behind her as she began to stroll around the room.

“So where on Gallifrey are we?” she asked, forcing a smile. “Don’t tell me this was all of it. One room for a grand world like Gallifrey.” She chuckled, but she didn’t hear her father laughter. She turned to gaze at him.

“No,” he explained as his gaze rose up toward the high curving ceiling of glass panes. “This place is a close approximation of the central historical centre on the campus of the Prydon Academy, during the fourth era of the Time Lords.”

“How do you know?” she asked, letting her own gaze move across the glistening ceiling.

She heard a soft, amused chuckle, which drew her sights back to him. There was the small hint of a smile on his lips.

For a moment, Jenny stared perplexed at her father and then it dawned on her. A huge smile slowly spread over her face. “You made this... all of this, didn’t you, Dad?”

“Like I said before, I’m good with my hands,” he replied, letting the smile spread over his face. “It technically isn’t part of the original museum. I came upon this orbital museum a few years ago... before I started travelling with Donna. When I realised what this museum was and what it could do. Well, I decided why not! I’m tired of people forgetting who the Time Lords were.”

He stopped walking only when he reached the first statue Jenny had looked at. It was the one of the tall slender woman with the golden headdress. Jenny watched as he silently gazed up at the stone woman, staring longingly at her. He reached out and touched the woman’s face gently, drawing in a deep breath before he continued speaking. “I haven’t quite finished it, which is why it was locked. I’ve been meaning to come back and finish it; just haven’t had the time to do so.”

He sniffed before turning to meet her gaze seriously. “You know saving the universe.”

Jenny smiled at him. “And all that running.”

“Oh, yes!” he agreed with a huge grin. This time Jenny almost thought she could see the smile in his eyes.

It was then that another thrilling thought struck Jenny. She dashed to the other side of the tree. “Does that mean it... this exhibit also has a holographic representation of the people?” she asked excitedly. When he nodded an affirmative, Jenny shrieked with joy and rushed forward to link her arms around his left arm.

“Would you like to see them?” he asked seriously, almost as if her answer could change the face of the universe forever.

Jenny’s enthusiasm and curiosity ran away with her mouth. She blurted out, “Oh, yes! Can we, Dad? I would love that. Oh, please... please!” she said. Then she bit her lip, releasing his arm and clasping her hands behind her back. She bowed her head, trying to hold in her enthusiasm. “I mean... if it is okay with you. I don’t want...”

“If you want to,” he said and Jenny’s gaze snapped up immediately as she gave him a pleading look.

_Oh, you have no idea, Father. I would do anything to see them. I want to learn, I really want to learn about your people... perhaps our people? Oh, please say yes, oh please, oh please!_

This time Jenny refrained from blurting out her thoughts again and simply and calmly said, “Yes, Father.”

There was uneasiness in his eyes. She wasn’t sure why it was there, flickering in his eye’s dark depths, but a moment later the darkness gave way to his eyes’ normal soft brown. Her father nodded and removed his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. “I’m fine with it then,” he said without his usual smile. “Come on.” 

He led her back towards the raised transmat platform. Just to the left of the platform, he stopped in front of one of the stone pillars. Reaching toward it, he pulled back a segment of the pillar to reveal a computer panel with a series of blue buttons. Touching his sonic screwdriver to it, the small screen on the panel flickered to life. Almost instantly, Jenny heard voices and the sounds of movement behind her. She quickly spun around. They were no longer alone.  
  


_To Be Continued..._

 


	6. Alone in the Crowd

Jenny’s mouth gapped open. Her wide, blue eyes tried to take in the crowds that now filled white, amphitheatre-like room. Everywhere she looked, Jenny saw holographic people in long robes and high collars; they looked almost exactly like the stone figures positioned along the walls.

She tentatively took a few steps towards them, noticing every detail of their activities. Most of the holographic Time Lords were casually strolling in and out of the radiantly lit white room. Amongst these casual walkers, a couple Time Lords, usually with armloads of scrolls, books or electronic pads, briskly hurried by without a word or reaction to anyone else around them. Then there were those few Time Lords that barely moved and were gathered in small clusters here and there throughout the room. A few sat near the base of the Tree of Gallifrey, examining small, hand-held electronic pads.

Jenny’s eyes widened further and a huge grin spread over her face. Slowly, she wandered amongst them, taking note that despite all the statues’ outfits being carved out of a pearly white stone, the holographic Time Lords’ outfits varied in colour. Most of the outfits were scarlet and orange coloured. There were a few robes of blue and green, purple and gold, or completely black. Most of them had the high collars, running up from the neckline.

“Wow, they did wear that restrictive, impractical clothing combination!” she exclaimed, continuing to mingle amongst the holographic Time Lords. It was when she had paused next to one group of Time Lords, wearing the high collars, Jenny saw how they were fidgeting in their robes and rubbing their necks. Jenny chuckled at the sight. “And it seems like they thought the outfits were just as uncomfortable as you did.”

“Oh, of course,” her father piped from the other side of the room. “What! You think I’d make something like that up?”

Jenny beamed at him and saw that he was giving her a half smile. “Never crossed my mind, Dad,” she said with a wink in his direction before returning her attention back to the holographic Time Lords.

Jenny continued to weave her way between the holographic Time Lords, trying to avoid them. More often than not, she had to side step those that moved into her path or apologize when she accidentally crossed into them. She knew the holographic figures weren’t real, but still she figured if they were going to react like they were real, the least she could do was treat them so. Jenny gave warm and friendly smiles to each holographic Time Lord that briefly met her gaze, and she did not butt into the middle of conversations she overheard, despite the fact she really wanted to do so. Instead, she continued to manoeuvre between the masses until she found a spot where she could stand in place and not run into anyone. It ended up being near the statue of the slender woman with the golden headdress. There Jenny paused, letting herself take in the sensations and sights of being amongst this legendary society. She noticed every little detail and nuance of the atmosphere and the individuals who created it:

She noticed their perfect postures. They stood completely straight and tall or sat up straight, no slouching. “Well, Time Lords must have had the best posture in the entire universe,” Jenny commented as her gaze skimmed the straight backed crowds.

It was then that her sights locked upon one young man with messy brown hair dressed in slightly dishevelled, black robes. He sat near the base of one of the statues and was hunched over an electronic pad, staring intently at it with a furrowed brow. “Well, almost all of them.” She softly chuckled before her sights returned to the rest of the holographic Time Lords.

Another thing Jenny noticed was how the holographic Time Lords refrained from gesturing too much or using inflections in their voices. Only the occasional flick of the wrist was used to emphasize their words, and every word they spoke was done very clearly and confidently but in a mostly monotone voice. They sounded very unnatural and Jenny was sure, if she let the voices, they’d put her to sleep. Glancing wickedly towards her father, she wondered if the monotone voices were boring enough to put him to sleep too. She was sure Donna wouldn’t mind a bit of peace and quiet on the TARDIS every once and awhile. Jenny giggled at the thought.

“What are you laughing at?” her father called from the other side of the room. One of his eyebrows was raised in question.

Jenny grinned and said, “Oh, nothing.” Still grinning at him, Jenny decided she liked the TARDIS just the way it was, filled her father’s endless rambling.   

Another thing Jenny noticed was the distinctive lack of laughter from anyone in the group, and when she did hear one puff of chuckling, it sounded bland and forced. Just like their voices, the unnatural laughter didn’t sound normal to her ears. In fact, it could well be mistaken for sarcasm, if there was just a think amongst Time Lords.

“I’d say thus far they’re meeting all my expectations of bland and boring,” she said, giving her father an ‘I told you so’ look.

He just smiled at her, remaining silent.

“But I won’t jump to conclusions just yet,” she said with a wink.

“Oh, that’s nice of you,” he said sarcastically.

“Isn’t though,” she said, cutting him off when she saw he was about to add something more, most likely rude.

Then she turned her attention back to the thong of people around her. Now that Jenny had seen an example of their environment with this central historic place and an example of their cultural interactions by watching them, she now wanted to meet one of them. Jenny hoped to see first-hand what another Time Lord, other than her father, was like. She wanted to see if they were very different from him and if they were as boring and compliant as she suspected. Then her eyes fell upon two young women who didn’t look much older than her.

_Young female Time Lords, now there’s a great idea, particularly if they are about my age... well, physical age at least. I can’t figure talking to a two to three week old Time Lord would be that beneficial._

Jenny smiled at the thought.

_But someone who’s about 15 to 20 years old is more likely to be as knowledgeable as me and similar personality... I think._

Jenny buried her concerns and approached the pair, stopping just beside them. Both young women were as tall as her father with distinct but gorgeous faces without a hint of make-up on them. One of the young women had long brown hair elaborately piled on the top of her head and bright hazel eyes. The other young woman had long blonde hair that was tied into a tight bun at the high point on the back of her head and her eyes were a vibrant blue.

Jenny listened closely to their conversation, trying to decide when she should interrupt. Preferably, Jenny wanted them to notice her presence just as the young girl from the Rellium exhibit had done.

“... I still don’t agree with Koschei about what caused the feedback loop,” said the brown haired young woman with an expressionless look on her face. Her arms remained at her side as her left hand was firmly clinging to a black electronic pad. “I think the little know-it-all should keep his nose out of my business.”

“But Koschei did have a point, Isolde,” the blonde haired young woman said, raising an arm and gently flicking her wrist left then right in time to her reply. “If the temporal genetic manipulator wasn’t following the proper protocols then you can’t expect it to function within conventional parameters, particularly when operating in conjunction with a temporally sensitive phylios chiroptera sample.”

Jenny’s brow furrowed in confusion.

_Temporal sensitive what? I don’t understand a word of what they’re saying, and in fact, just trying to follow them makes my head hurt. How does Dad do it? I just don’t get it. I mean, I wish I did, I could. I hope I will one day when Dad teaches me all that book learning stuff he rambles on about endlessly._

For now, Jenny focused on the two young women. She waited, listening and occasionally opening her mouth in preparation for a moment when she could jump in, but she couldn’t find one. Worse than that, both of the young women seemed to be completely ignoring her presence. So despite not finding an opening she decided to butt in as kindly as possible.

“Pardon me,” Jenny said with a soft cough. “I don’t mean to interrupt you two, but I was wondering if I could ask you a question?”

The young women did not respond to her and kept talking to each other. They didn’t even glance in her direction.

“Look, I’m sorry to bother your... well, probably very important conversation; I’m sure, but... uhm... I was wondering do you always...” Jenny said, until the brown haired woman tittered loudly; it startled Jenny. She looked angrily at the woman. “Excuse me!”

“We must separate ourselves from the idiotic questions and comments of the unworthy, Ushas” Isolde said with a wicked grin, slightly covering it with the back of her right hand.

“Excuse me! My questions are not idiotic and.... yes, maybe I’m not one of you – yet – but I’m certainly not...” Jenny said as she felt her temper flare back to life, but she refrained from acting out. She knew losing her temper again wasn’t proving anything to herself and definitely nothing to her father, other than that she was the hot-tempered soldier that he probably thought she was.

“Now that’s not very becoming of a Time Lady,” Ushas said, giving Isolde a serious look, “don’t you think, Isoldehymencorane?”

“I’d agree with that... if you’re referring to Isoldehy... Isoldeyh...Iso-whatever,” Jenny grumbled before shutting her eyes and drawing in a deep calming breath.

_I really hope she’s referring to Isode-idiot and not me, but I have a bad feeling it might be me. I’m the only one acting irrational and probably rude again. I really got to stop doing that. What must I look like to them and to father?_

“Ok, look,” Jenny started, keeping her eyes closed as she steadied her voice. “We’re getting off on the wrong foot. My name is Jenny. Yes, I’m not as great or wise as you, I suppose, but I’m just curious and want to learn and become wiser... an...”

“They can’t hear you,” her father’s voice interrupted suddenly from across the room. Jenny’s eyes snapped open, and she turned towards him with a raised eye brow. He had edged slightly away from the wall and now had an apologetic look in his eyes.

“They aren’t reacting to me either. Why?” she asked giving him a questioning look. “Don’t tell me this is how Time Lords treat outsiders.”

“It isn’t that they won’t, they just can’t. Unlike the other exhibits originally created for this museum, the Gallifrey exhibit is only based off memories... well, that and a few video recordings from the TARDIS’s trips to Gallifrey, but mostly from here” he said, tapping his forehead. “So it is just a loop of events... nothing more.” Then he sighed as a sad expression crossed his face, burying his hands in his trench coat pockets. “They’re only ghosts in the machine now, not a hint of realism to them.”

Jenny’s expression grew solemn. “I’m sorry I made you come here, Dad,” she apologized, slowly walking back towards him. She passed carelessly through several of the holographic people, no longer caring about them or their transparent feelings.

Her father sighed, “Jenny...”

But she interrupted him, “Maybe it would have been better if we’d listen to Donna and just gone to some boring Earth museum. It might not have been as impressive as this, but... well, it might have been better.”

Her father frowned as his eyes narrowed. After a moment, he shook his head vigorously. “Nahhh! Maybe easier, less hectic, but nowhere near as fun!” he said, flashing a huge grin in her direction. It still didn’t reach his eyes. “Besides, you have a right to know. To know who these people were and all of that stuff.”

He said with a shrug as his smile started to fade from his face, “And... and it is good sometimes to see them... every once and awhile.” Her father sighed, walking towards her. They met part way across the room, only half a meter from transmat platform’s side of the Tree Gallifrey. “Most importantly, it reminds me why I need to keep going on. Why  _we_  have to keep doing what we do best.”

“You mean saving the universe?” Jenny asked hesitantly with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, yes!” he said exuberantly, reaching a hand towards her. A huge smile spread over his face. “And don’t forget all that running.”

Jenny couldn’t help the puff of laughter that escaped her lips. “Yeah, of course that too.” She paused momentarily before continuing. “But I’m still sorry,” Jenny said solemnly, taking her father’s hand, “for everything.”

She hoped it got across that she was apologizing not only for making him come here, meeting the ghosts from his past, but for her harsh words about his people and his life before. When he winked playfully at her, Jenny got the feeling he got the message.

They smiled at each other, enjoying one another’s company before the loud hum of a blaster charging echoed from the doorway of the Gallifrey exhibit. A new voice grumbled, “Not as sorry as you’re going to be.”

_To be continued..._


	7. Up Against the Wall

The Doctor and Jenny spun in the direction of the new voice. The Doctor saw the Gallifrey exhibit's arching exit doorway was now wide open. But it offered no route of escape.

In the doorway, a stout and dishevelled man stood. He had a pepper coloured, scraggly beard that matched with the colour of his messy, thinning hair line. Unlike the holograms, the Doctor noted that the tubby, older looking man was dressed in a black security uniform, which fit him too snugly, showing off most of his hairy arms and hinting too much of his round belly. But however out of place the outfit looked in a room full of colourful robes, it was the scruffy faced man’s very large blaster, which was pointed directly at Jenny and the Doctor, that held the Doctor’s gaze.

“Now who the hell are you?” the scruffy faced man snarled as he squinted at them.

Instincts immediately kicked in for the Doctor. He shoved Jenny behind him. He fixed the glaring, scruffy faced man with – a brilliant smile. “Hello!” the Doctor greeted as he started to plot out the best way to escape from the growing danger.

_Why does this keep happening? This was supposed to be a nice, relaxing trip to a museum; it wasn’t supposed to turn into a shootout. Why can’t I have a nice quiet, uneventful trip with Jenny? No stray flying footballs, no flirting boys, and definitely no gun totting thieves. Now, instead of a bit of fun learning with Jenny, getting to know my daughter, I have to figure a way to get us safely back to the TARDIS._

“I’m the Doctor and this is Jenny,” the Doctor said friendlily. “We’re just visiting this beautiful, old place... a sort of outing you might say. Sorry if we’re bothering you. Please go on with your business like we aren’t even here.”

“Not likely, Doctor,” the scruffy faced man grumbled, fidgeting with his belt, which looked like it was barely staying fastened around the man’s bulging waist. His large blaster gave a soft humming noise again and a red glow filled its mouth threateningly, but didn’t go any further – much to the Doctor’s relief.

“Now don’t even think of moving or else!” the scruffy faced man ordered Jenny and the Doctor.

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Jenny’s lips part to speak. Quickly, the Doctor slapped his hand over her mouth and shushed her. Her brow furrowed in confusion, but when he gave her a ‘don’t you dare’ look, Jenny seemed to get the message.

The Doctor removed his hand from over Jenny’s mouth and returned his attention to the old, scruffy faced man who was speaking into a round, black device from his belt. “Rez, you were right we got interlopers in Sector 10-YY-2G.”

“What!” a nasally voice exclaimed through the device followed by a line of grabbled cursing. “Hold them until Benni and Hellen arrive, Ulean. And don’t let them out of your sight. Is that clear?!”

“Yes, sir,” Ulean said obediently, before muffling the mouth piece of the communicator against his chest and grumbling his own curses. Then he sighed and returned the black device to his ear.

The Doctor leaned forward, trying to catch more of the conversation’s meaning as ‘Rez’ continued to speak overly-loudly into the communicator. The Doctor winced on Ulean’s behalf – he did hate people who shouted unnecessarily over phones and communicators. There was really no need, actually more often there was more need for quietness. For his part, Ulean didn’t seem to care what his leader – the Doctor guessed – was shouting at him. He just grunted the occasional ‘yes, sir’ or ‘I understand, sir’ into the communicator, while the majority of his attention seemed to be focused on examining the Gallifrey exhibit and on keeping his blaster aimed at the Doctor and Jenny. The Doctor couldn’t figure out if Ulean was just being overly confident about his ability to multi-task or if he was just that good of a shot: that if they tried to run he could hit them.

Looking towards Jenny, the Doctor debated which way he was going to venture. Jenny was fast, just as quick as him, he knew. Also, lightly padding his pocket, he remembered the new little toy that he had brought him. Quickly, several absolutely brilliant ideas for escaping – if he did say so himself – formed in his mind. The only question was: could he get himself and Jenny close enough to either the raised transmat platform or the exit before Ulean noticed? Or, at least get them to one of them before it was too late for Ulean to stop them?

Even as his mind ran with possible plans, the Doctor could hear Jenny moving behind him. He felt her tug on one of his trench coat sleeves and turned slightly towards her, giving her a curious look. “What is it?” he whispered as he shifted his gaze back to Ulean.

“Father, I thought you said there were no workers or guards for this museum,” Jenny whispered back, gazing up anxiously at him for an answer.

“There aren’t,” the Doctor said softly as he kept his eyes trained on Ulean, who turn slightly away from them a moment later. The Doctor smiled and opened his mouth to tell Jenny to hurry to the transmat platform, but she cut him off.

“But then... who is he?” she asked, eyeing Ulean with look of mistrust.

The Doctor knew he probably shouldn’t have answered her question. He knew should have just told her to get moving towards the transmat platform, but he didn’t. He was sure that was yet another mistake in his series of mistakes, starting with him agreeing to dinner with the Noble family.

“Look on his belt,” he said gesturing towards several round, red devices. “Those are transmat markers. They send a signal to a ship’s transmat computer, so it can lock on to them and whatever they are attached to and teleport them to the ship.”

“Why would someone need those in a museum, unless...” she said, looking puzzled at him for a moment before her eyes widened with realisation. The Doctor tried to move his hand to muffle her words again, but this time Jenny was too quick. “He’s stealing!”

Ulean’s gaze shifted swiftly back towards them. The Doctor mentally cursed to himself.

_Well, there goes that moment of escape. Thank you so much, Miss Loud Mouth. Yet another of my characteristics I really wish you hadn’t inherited. When we survive this, you and I will have a nice long chat about when to speak up and when not to. In fact, I’m adding that to my list of don’ts for all my companions. No loud noises when the enemy’s back is turned and we’re trying to escape._

Ulean gazed at her darkly as he reattached the round, black communicator to his belt. The aim of his large blaster shifted directly towards Jenny, which set off about fifty billion alarms off in the Doctor’s head. The Doctor’s arm snapped out to block the coming fire, but Ulean didn’t pull the trigger, much to the Doctor’s relief yet again. The Doctor was sure some higher being was looking out for him this one time. He’d have to thank it one day.

Instead Ulean growled at Jenny, eyeing her in a too sexually interested way that made the Doctor’s hearts nearly stop. He hadn’t liked Neal’s flirting, but this gun totting thief sent the Doctor’s nerves right over the edge.

“What’s it to you, Pretty?” Ulean questioned with a half leering smile.

The Doctor curled his protective arm around Jenny, until he was once again completely in front of her. “It’s nothing to us. Nothing at all. We care nothing about anything or nothing you or anyone you work for who is or are... or not doing here. In fact....”

“Shut up!” Ulean yelled, swinging his large blaster back in the Doctor’s direction.

The Doctor quickly shut his mouth and nodded his understanding.

“You shouldn’t even be here,” Ulean declared, moving the aim of his large blaster back and forth between the Doctor and Jenny. “We checked. We made sure no transports were in this sector of space before we docked.”

“Exactly right,” Doctor said, jumping in as he started shoving Jenny in the direction of the transmat platform. “We aren’t here at all. You never saw us. Heck, we never saw anyone here.... not anyone. Actually, Jenny, let’s be on our way.”

Jenny gave him a bewildered look as he subtly nodded to the transmat platform. Then the Doctor less than subtly pushed her towards it. They had moved only a few steps before the ground where they had stood mere seconds before exploded, sending fine particles of marble into the air. The Doctor quickly enveloped Jenny into his arms, shielding her against the wall. Through the vanishing dust cloud, the Doctor fixed Ulean with a furious glare.

“I said shut up!” Ulean declared, baring his yellowish teeth at them as he again charged his large blaster and aimed at them. “Now, what I want to know, Dr. Who-talks-too-much, is how you got here?” Ulean demanded as he took a few menacing steps towards them, placing himself besides the Tree of Gallifrey. The Doctor pushed Jenny and himself an equal number of steps away from Ulean.

“How else, we flew,” the Doctor said sarcastically and the blaster snapped back at him. He instantly regretted his rudeness and noticed Ulean’s finger twitched slightly near the blaster’s trigger. “I mean, we took the transport here.... from the planet’s surface.” The Doctor was quickly noticing that this man was a bit too trigger happy and definitely looking for any excuse to shoot them. He decided he wasn’t going to give Ulean any more reasons.

“No, there ain’t no ships on the planet, and don’t go telling me you live there, because no one lives on that waste pit, not since the Cyber-Wars,” Ulean said. “What I figure is you were already here... on the station. You’re robbing it too! Bad idea on your part, Dr. Who-talks-too-much. We make claim on this haul. It’s ours... and I ain’t afraid to add a few bodies to keep it that way.”

“Haul what?” Jenny asked, interrupting the threat of Ulean. To the Doctor’s surprise, Jenny didn’t seem fazed by Ulean’s threats thus far.

_Looks like those soldier instincts are kicking in nicely. I’ll give her that. If we weren’t potentially facing a painful death, I’d love to learn more... perhaps finally get some insight into who Jenny is... how much she’s really like me. In fact, I wonder if her ability to hide her emotions from others comes from me or... if it’s just something the progeneration machine encoded into her, because she certainly didn’t hide her strong emotions well several minutes ago when... when I put my foot in my big mouth. Stupid, stupid Doctor. I really have to learn not to be so rude, particularly towards her. If I want to actually get to know her... to keep her safe from dangers like Ulean, I’ve got to learn to control my mouth a bit more. Yeah, okay, so I’m not ginger, but that doesn’t mean I have to go out of my way to be so rude..., well, at least not all the time._

A snort of amusement from Ulean pulled the Doctor back to the present. “Are you blind, Pretty?” Ulean scoffed with a half smirk.

“No, are you?” Jenny said sarcastically. “If you haven’t looked around, Mr. Wannabe-GI-Jane....”

The Doctor shook his head. “No... No, don’t say that...”

“What?” Jenny inquired, giving the Doctor a confused look.

“You aren’t saying it right... you can’t say it unless he’s a she but he’s a he and... just don’t, okay?” the Doctor told her.

Jenny gave him a perplexed look before shrugging. “Okay,” she said acceptingly. Then she turned her heated gaze back towards Ulean. “The point is everything here is holographic.”

The Doctor bit his lower lip. “Ah! Actually, Jenny, not everything.”

oOo

Jenny looked at her father, trying to work out what he was talking about.

_This is historical, holographic museum. What else is there besides the holographic representations within each world’s exhibit? I mean, sure they could steal the memory base of the orbital museum, but that would mean stealing most of the station along with it. And looking at Ulean who’s nothing but a shoddily dressed thug hiding behind a big blaster, he’s defiantly not smart enough or prepared enough for that kind of operation.... No way has his supposed ops team planned on stealing a whole station. So what else is there?_

“Even this deserted dust trap of a station holds worthwhile treasures,” Ulean sneered with a wicked chuckle.

“Treasures?” Jenny asked before realisation struck her. “You mean the artifacts, like the ceremonial mask of Rellium!”

An evil grin from Ulean confirmed her statement.

”No!” Jenny declared angrily, taking a step towards Ulean. The thief’s large blaster shifted in her direction and her father started to tug her back. “You can’t steal those! They’re one of a kind!”

“Exactly, Pretty,” Ulean sneered with a smug wink, “and one of a kind’s are worth a lot! Particularly to the right kind of buyers.”

“No!” Jenny said defiantly. “I won’t let you!”

Ulean snorted in amusement and then he aimed just slightly to her right and fired his large blaster. A blinding, blood red beam flew from the blaster, striking the stone statue to her right. At the place where the beam hit it, thousands of cracks erupted in every direction, until the stone figure exploded into millions of pieces of rock. Her father yanked her out of the way as a shower of rock and dust fell around them.

Jenny gasped, feeling her hearts racing as she heard Ulean snigger. Her gazed heatedly locked on him, waiting for him to take another shot at her; he didn’t. “Don’t forget who’s the man with the gun, Pretty,” he said wickedly.

“Oh, don’t worry, we won’t,” her father said coldly. Then he pulled an arm back from his protective wrapping as he whispered to her. “Are you okay, Jenny?”

Jenny partially turned her attention towards him. “Yes, I think so,” she said as, out of the corner of her eye, she watched the scruffy faced thief once again turn away from them and pace the room, still laughing. Several heavy pants fell from Jenny lips as she turned her full attention back to her father. It was then she noticed her father was reaching into one of his trench coat pockets.

_It can’t be a weapon. Dad hates guns and the like. I mean he scolded me repeatedly about them on Messaline and made me leave all of mine there, much as I still wish I had my hidden, compact laser gun. The only thing I can think that he might have in there is his sonic screwdriver, but that won’t be of any help now. The doors are already open and the platform will work with one touch. What we need are weapons._ _They’re the only thing that thugs like Ulean understand. Reasoning isn’t even in his vocabulary I bet._

A new smile spread over her father’s face. “Well, don’t worry about us, Ulean. We aren’t interested in any of this stuff here. Not in the least,” he said loudly.

“No,” the scruffy face man said with a sceptically tone as he approached one of the stone figures on the other side of the room. “Then why are you here, and what is this room? It wasn’t on the museum’s maps, and it only appeared on our ship’s scanners after you two entered it.”

Ulean’s gaze swept over the holographic Time Lords. At first there was a shimmer of interest in Ulean’s eyes as they narrowed on a few female Time Lords. Then he snorted with amusement. “I’ve never seen such funny dressed people in my life. What pathetic culture was this?” he asked.

“They weren’t pathetic,” Jenny protested, stepping forward only to be pushed back by her father.

She knew what her father was doing: protecting her, and she really hated it. Not because he was treating her like she was incapable of fighting. Jenny knew he wouldn’t do that. It was the fact that he was putting himself in harm’s way. She couldn’t let him do that; she wouldn’t let him do that. But the only way Jenny knew to keep her father safe was to direct this oblivious, gun-toting, wannabe soldier’s attention and anger on her. So she drew in her fears and anger and spread a smirk over her face.

“Well, obviously you know nothing then, Mr. Wannabe-GI-Jane,” Jenny said rudely. She could already hear her father drawing in a breath to speak, so she hurried to continue, not giving him the chance to cut in. “They were the greatest race in the universe! The Time Lords.”

“Jenny,” her father managed to hiss, pushing her further behind him. “Not now.”

“I’m sorry, Dad, but I can’t...” she started to explain, but her words were cut off by the sound of sniggering from the Ulean.

“The Time Lords,” Ulean laughed, throwing his head back. “What a ridiculous name for a people! The... Lords... of Time!”

“Ridiculous?” Jenny said. Her mouth fell open as a wave of shock and anger filled her mind. She could feel her temper rising again as she balled up her fists. “How dare you say that about them!”

“I always thought that... that made up name was a horrible choice by whoever thought up those fairytales,” sniggered Ulean, wiping tears from his eyes.

Her shoulders drooped as her mouth opened and closed repeatedly. “Fairytales!?” Jenny asked puzzled, turning towards her father in completely confusion. “What does he mean, Dad?”

“Time Lords aren’t real, Pretty” Ulean answered for her father. “They’re just legends, imaginary figures like the Daleks. Figures for children to imagine. Legends that fought the coming darkness. But, of course, I suppose Daddy here never taught you the difference between real and make-believe.” He wore a smug smirk on his lips.

When her father said nothing to counter Ulean’s claims, she snapped her gaze back towards Ulean. “They are real!” Jenny declared angrily, pushing her way forward.

“Jenny,” her father hissed, tugging on her right arm to pull her back.

“Yeah, right,” Ulean said smugly as he averted his gaze from her as if she wasn’t worth his time. That only spurred her on.

“They are!” she pressed, pushing her father’s hands away from her. “They are real!”

Ulean gave her sceptical glance over his shoulder, while one of his black gloved hands groped the stone bottom of the stone woman with the golden headdress. “Yeah, right,” Ulean said sarcastically. “Prove it, Pretty!”

“Aren’t we enough proof?” she asked rudely as her father yanked her back hard.

Her father pushed her up against the wall and hissed softly, “Not now, Jenny. This isn’t the time to argue about history.”

“But he’s insulting  _our_... your people, how can you let him do that?” she questioned, looking at her father accusingly. She drew a hurried breath. “I know they weren’t always great... to you and maybe their dress sense was less than great, but...”

“It doesn’t matter in the great scheme of things,” her father told her. His voice broke slightly as he continued. “They’re gone and we’re here now!”

“Wait, are you saying you two are...” Ulean commented from behind them. They returned their gazes to him. The scruffy faced man’s eyes bounced between her and her father as he ran a hand over what little pepper coloured hair he had on his head. “You two? You’re kidding, right?”

Her father straightened himself to his full stature. “Does it really matter who we are, Ulean?” he asked in a serious tone, turning back towards Ulean and returning a protective arm in front of her.

Jenny was still shocked by her father’s words. She stared, blinking at him. Her mind was wheeling.

Ulean was shaking his head with a half smirk. “Not at all, but you should really teach your pretty little daughter how to lie,” he chuckled. “A lie like that will never make her into any kind of thief.”

Those words drew Jenny back to the danger at hand. She was mad, but she was more concerned about the large blaster currently trained on her father.

“We’re not thieves!” she yelled, once again trying to take a threatening step towards Ulean. His blaster shifted back in her direction. Jenny refrained from pulling back and kept eye contact with Ulean.

“Oh right, you’re Time Lords,” Ulean said sarcastically with another snort of amusement.

“Yes,” she hissed in anger. “Two hearts and everything.”

“Don’t make me laugh again, Pretty,” Ulean said smugly, before returning his attention to the slender stone woman with the golden headdress. He tapped the stone face with his left index finger.

Jenny wasn’t done telling this stupid thug, supposedly trained gunner, how wrong he was. “Then why do you think we are here,” she said with a haughty look. “Why do you think this place was invisible to you before we arrived? And how do you think we got here without you noticing?”

Ulean didn’t even turn back towards them when he answered, “I think you’re here to steal artefacts, the same as us, and I think you came to this exhibit because there is something in this room of particular value.” He ran a finger along the elaborate golden headdress. “Perhaps this little beauty. It looks like gold.”

Her father suddenly tugged her in the direction of the doorway, but Jenny resisted. She yanked her hand out of his grasp. Jenny was too angry and focused on Ulean to even think of running.

_A soldier doesn’t run away from an enemy she can defeat... particularly one as stupid as Ulean. I don’t understand why father wants to run from him. There’s nothing to be afraid of here. Ulean’s just a thug. A thug hiding behind a big blaster. I can take him easily, I’m sure of it. I just need to get close enough. Once I disarm him everything will be okay. I’ll make sure of it! Ulean will never get another crack shot off, and then father and I can stop his ops team from stealing these precious pieces of history._

“No, you idiotic excuse for a soldier! You aren’t even that! You’re a brainless thug with an oversized piece of low grade metal that you luckily know how to push a few buttons on. Simple instrument for a simple mind,” Jenny declared between scoffs of distain. “Your mediocre brain's ability is below a Cybermat. I doubt you even have the capacity to sling together a string of logical cues enough to think beyond your own bloodthirsty experience.” Jenny yelled in frustration, which made her father cringe. He glared at her as she went on. “We came here, you brainless thug, to be reminded of our people!”

Ulean spun around quickly; his dark gaze immediately burning in her direction. “I suggest you watch your tongue, Pretty,” he growled, shifting his blaster’s aim towards her father, “unless you want Daddy dearest here to lose an arm.”

That comment was like a slap in the face to Jenny. Her insulting words had done the complete opposite. Instead of turning Ulean’s attention onto herself, it had turned it on her father once again. Jenny realised she might have laid on the insults a bit too heavy this time, but she didn’t have time to scold herself. She had to think quickly and try to get Ulean focused on her again.

“You wouldn’t. You don’t... you don’t have the stomach for it,” Jenny said, finding herself now struggling for the right words. “And... anyway, he’s not the one you should be worried about.”

“Oh, really?” Ulean sneered, raising an eyebrow in her direction.

“Really,” Jenny said, narrowing her eyes in an aggressive way.

Ulean gave her a curious look, cocking his head to one side, before shifting his blaster back in her direction. “Perhaps you are right,” he grinned evilly. He cocked his head to the other side, taking a few steps closer towards her and her father. “You think of yourself a little soldier, don’t you, Pretty?”

Jenny glared at him, but didn’t reply. She didn’t trust her tongue not to give away her thoughts or the strong emotions coursing through her.

“I know soldiers, Pretty,” Ulean told her coldly. “I’ve killed plenty of them in my time.” He wickedly chuckled as if recalling the experiences. “And yes they can be strong and brave and oh so willing to die for what they believe in, but you know what the kink in their perfect like armour is, Pretty? You know why I live to speak and they are nothing but dust in the space winds now?”

Jenny nervously swallowed, but refrained from answering.

“I know that under all of their big talk and guns... they believe in a silly little thing called loyalty. Loyalty to those around them, towards those they love,” Ulean smirked at her. “And I’m about to use that against you, Pretty.” He shifted his blaster’s aim back towards her father.

“You can’t!” she said, looking wide-eyed at her father. She knew instantly she’d just affirmed Ulean’s words with that frightened glance. She brought her gaze to Ulean, trying in vain to pull his attention away from her father. “You’ll be breaking a direct command from you commanding officer. He ordered you to hold us here, not to kill, not to hurt us. If you do, you’ll be in trouble. Big trouble with him! You wouldn’t want that now, would you?”

Ulean sneered, “So what?” He chuckled wickedly again before looking at Jenny’s father with a dark glint in his eyes. “I’ll just say Daddy tried to attack me, and I was left with no alternative.”

“No!” Jenny yelled.

The scruffy faced man pulled the large blaster’s trigger.

 

 

_To be continued..._


	8. Trouble Wears Black

Ulean’s round, unshaven face was creased with an overly smug smirk when he pulled the trigger. The Doctor didn’t see one ounce of regret in Ulean’s dark brown eyes. The supposed thief was nothing more than a killer. He knew what he was doing and didn’t care whether his shot hurt or killed the Doctor. Ulean just wanted to do anything to get back at Jenny.

That made the Doctor’s decision very, very easy when he saw Ulean fire. Within his pocket the Doctor flicked a small switch and his eyes narrowed on the blood red beam. It flared brightly in the mouth of the large blaster before flying straight at the Doctor’s chest – never touching him.

The Doctor’s intense gaze meet Ulean’s wide eyed one. The thief’s smirk was gone. In its place was a slack jawed expression. A series of silent disbelieving and stuttered questions dripped from his lips.

 

A bright blue bubble flickered around the Doctor and Jenny; they were safe. The Doctor was the one smirking now. He loved surprising his adversaries. It gave him a sense of satisfaction at being just one step ahead of them.

Ulean blinked his wide eyes several times. The old, unkempt thief’s gaze then snapped down towards his blaster. He ran his gloved fingers over it, most likely trying to figure out what had happened. The Doctor took the moment of distraction to grab Jenny’s hand and take off for the open doorway.

When he and Jenny had crossed the threshold of the arching doorway, the Doctor heard the rough voice of Ulean bellow, “Stop! Stop right there or... or else!” The scruffy faced man’s voice sounded less confident and trembled slightly.

They raced onward down a dimly lit hallway, Jenny trailing behind the Doctor and the sound of gun fire in their wake. He could feel her slightly lagging behind him or was she tugging on it. In the lit junction point room, the Doctor only paused long enough to notice five other hallways more brightly lit than the one they just left. Then, he was off again.

The Doctor randomly picked one of the five brightly lit hallways and continued onward. He needed to put some distance between them and the gun totting Ulean. He needed time to formulate a plan of action. He needed time to find the TARDIS and get them safely back on board, and most importantly, he needed time to find a safe place to rest before the pain of his cracked ribs over took his ability to think and act.

“Dad! Dad, stop! We have to go back. We have to stop them!” Jenny protested loudly, still tugging on his hand. “We can’t just run from this!”

The Doctor’s only reply was to speed up. He led them through a labyrinth of hallways in and out of dozens of extinct worlds’ exhibits in hope of losing their pursuer. After working their ways through several more junction point rooms and turning a couple more hallway corners, the Doctor finally spotted a door in one junction point room with the label, ‘Cleaning Closet’ on it.

“In there,” he said through gritted teeth. The pain was returning, and he wasn’t sure if he could hold out any longer. As he approached the door, the Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver. He pressed it to the lock and the door clicked opened.

“Dad!” Jenny protested as he yanked her inside. She made an ‘umph’ sound just as the Doctor turned around to make sure no one saw them. When he didn’t see anyone, the Doctor slammed the door shut behind them. He again pressed the sonic screw driver to the door and heard a click as it locked again.

He was breathing heavily when he heard Jenny complaining. “Dad, what are we doing here? We have to go back! We have to...”

“Quiet!” the Doctor hissed.

He raised his sonic screwdriver with a trembling hand to the place he had seen the dangling light before shutting the door. A moment later the light flickered on, flooding the small enclosed area with a bright, white glow. He could now see the steely gaze of Jenny. Her arms were cross over her chest and an impatient Doctor-ish look was scrawled across her face. If he wasn’t in so much pain, he would have laughed, making some humorous remark about “like father, like daughter,” but at the moment the Doctor could barely stay on his feet.

The Doctor wished he had time to explain to her, had time to tell her why he was about to slip into an unconscious state, had time to explain how important the healing trance was and that he wasn’t leaving her to fend for herself, but already he could feel his body shutting down. His back struck the steel wall with a thud. He gasped for breath and gave her a pleading look, croaking, “Please... Jenny.”

The deep ridges in Jenny’s forehead smoothed away. Her gaze softened as she cocked her head to one side and slowly approached him. There was confusion in her blue eyes. He saw Jenny’s lips move to say “Father”, but his ears suddenly felt too numb as he slid down the wall.

He stuttered, trying in vain to fight his body, “P... pl...Please, Jen...Jenny, li... listen...we... I... need...”

Like a colossal wave overtaking over him, the pain in his right side spread up his chest. An anguished groan was ripped from his lips. His lungs felt suddenly heavy. He couldn’t take in the needed breaths. His entire world slide rightward and towards the crimson coloured carpet, but before his head struck the floor, he felt two small hands catch it.

Through tear soaked eyes, he saw the blurry image of Jenny slowly lowering him onto his back. She was mouthing, ‘Dad?’

As the world of colours bled together, he felt Jenny’s small, cool hands cupping his face. His moist eyes opened partially again and he saw a terrified look in her blue eyes before his vision started to darken slowly inward. His eyelids slid shut, but in the darkness he swore he could hear Jenny’s voice:

“Dad! Can you hear me? Dad, what’s wrong? Please wake up! Please don’t leave me! Dad!”

In a puff of breath, he gasped her name one last time – then darkness was all the Doctor knew.

 

oOo

Sweat dripped down Ulean’s brow. It shimmered in the greasy mess of his thinning, pepper coloured hair. His graying hair along with the dark colour of his fake security uniform was a huge contrast to the bright redness his face had become. Between incoherent curses, Ulean release heavy panting breaths. When his left side began to ache again, the chubby, old man stopped running.

He had reached yet another junction point room in this maze-like museum. Ulean decided he really hated museums; they were unnecessarily large in his opinion. Also they were pointless; history was in the past and served little more than make fools of great men. He was no fool. He knew that the future was far more important, particularly in terms of what it would bring him.

Bending over slightly, Ulean placed a hand over his aching side as his eyes skimmed the brightly lit room. All this running after intruders was taking its toll on his out-of-shape body. He wasn’t use to chasing people, just threatening them, and if he was lucky, shooting them. That was his role on Rez’s team; it was why he’d been hired eight years ago.

 

At the time, Ulean had been more than happy for the work. His hit-man career hadn’t been lucrative in recent years. He blamed it to time catching up with him, but he also knew that fewer people hired since the Interstellar Patrols had teamed up with the Shadow Proclamation to eliminate the market. He hated it, particularly since he was, by this point, too old to train himself into any legitimate profession. Then again, what honest job allowed him to shoot people or blow up buildings on a daily basis? 

No, the job with Rez had been the best choice at the time. The promised pay was fair and definitely more constant than killing for money. Ulean even got to do what he enjoyed the most in the whole universe: shooting people and blowing things up.

One of the more speculator feats he had the chance to do had happened three years after he joined. It was during a heist at the mansion of New, New York’s mayor at the time. Ulean grinned gleefully as he recalled the chaos he had created, while Rez and the others looted the precious old Earth artefacts from the mayor's private collection. He’d demolished half of the mansion and a good portion of the showy gardens surrounding the manison. Even now, Ulean could still hear the screams as the pathetic cowards ran from him, tripping over each other in terror. They didn’t even try to fight back, which he regretted. He’d been more than ready to take on the New New York Police Department, but they didn’t even show until long after Rez had ordered them out.

 

_What a glorious time! If only the buyer hadn’t chickened out at the last minute, we might have been filthy rich and not having to rob this pathetic museum. Instead I could be enjoying my own personal island on some tropical planet whose name I can’t even pronounce with all the animals I could ever want to hunt, and I wouldn’t still be stuck with people like the Muscle Brothers: Kytte and Lytte. Too stupid to understand the finer points of torture killing, but I suppose, at least they’re good when you need a bit of back-up muscle. And I wouldn’t have to put up with that annoying techie and smart-ass, Hellen. I’d pay anything to see her knocked off her high pedestal of all-knowing techie... things she constantly brags about._

He grumbled to himself as he felt his heart returning to a normal rhythm.

_But our fearless and supposedly brilliant leader, Rez, isn’t much better than any of them. He's been the biggest letdown, barely getting buyers to stick wtih the pay out of the job we've run. It’s pathetic. We couldn’t even afford more than a tiny, rundown transport ship for this job. And Hellen barely got the transmat working on that piece of junk. If it wasn’t for the addition of Benni Boy, I’d have left weeks ago, gone back to the killing for hire._

As Ulean decided which hallway to try next in his hunt for the intruders, his thoughts shifted to the newest teammate.

_The kid’s impressive; I’ll give that to him. Plenty of willingness to pull his own load and barely complains, and the boy’s a good shot. Even taught me a thing or two, though, I’ll never tell him that. I think he’s getting enough of an ego thanks to Rez and all his praising of him for this job he set up. Of course, even I’ll give the kid extra points for that, particularly with the promise of a big pay out. A chance to finally call it quits and get that island I always wanted. The kid sure is... is..._

Then Ulean paused in thought and his brow furrowed. A cold tingle itched at the back of Ulean’s mind. A feeling like he was suddenly remembering something he’d forgotten.

_Benni Boy... he’s something different than the rest. Something very different. A pretty boy, well-trained with an array of weapons and hand-to-hand combat and yet he's smart. Seems able to talk the techie words with Hellen. Not that I’ve never seen someone who can do both, but..._

Just then Ulean’s thoughts were interrupted as the sound of footsteps echoed down one of the six hallways connected to the junction point room. It made Ulean jump at first, until he realised it might be the intruders. A pure adrenaline rush of joy filled him as he raised his gun. This time he wouldn’t miss and if he had to, he’d kill Pretty first.

_Let’s see how Dr. Who-talks-too-much much likes to be the one surprised._

His grip tightened on his energy weapon. His glare narrowed on the hallway from which the sound echoed. Ulean waited for them to emerge, cursing himself for letting them trick him. He saw two forms slowly appear from the shadows of the hallway: a man and a young woman.

Ulean fired one shot that narrowly missed the young woman when she jumped out of the way and behind the man. Ulean energized his weapon for another shot.

The man with black hair yelled, “Hold your fire!” He quickly moved forward with a deep and upset frown on his clean shaven face. His bright blue eyes had a cold hard look to them. He and the young woman were dressed in similar black security guard uniform as Ulean, expect on the man it fit in all the right places. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Old Man?!”

Ulean reluctantly lowered his gun before sourly saying, “Sorry, Benni.”

“Shouldn’t you be watching the intruders instead of taking crack shots at your team mates?” the young woman pointed out. She was a few centimetres shorter than Benni with short red hair. She gave Ulean an annoyed look from behind a pair of thick, silver rimmed goggles.

“Oh, will you take those ridiculous night vision goggles off, Hellen,” growled Ulean. “They look ridiculous and they are pointless since we got the lights on.”

Hellen stuck her tongue out at Ulean before pushing the silver goggles up her forehead. “You’re just jealous that Rez trusts me more than you, Ugly Ulean.”

Ulean growled at her as he started raising his blaster again.

“That’s enough from both of you!” Benni snapped, giving both Ulean and Hellen a silencing glare. Then he continued talking to Ulean. “So where are these intruders you captured, Old Man?”

Ulean slightly lowered his blaster before dipping his eyes. He didn’t want to admit his mistake in losing them, especially with Hellen around. She’d be merciless in her taunting, calling him incompetent and plenty of other posh, learnt insults. After Pretty’s abuse, Ulean wasn’t in the mood for any of Hellen’s crap. Particularly since, he knew that Hellen would probably relish in telling Rez about his mistake. She’d make him out as incapable. That would only make matters worse for him when he had to explain things to Rez in person.

“So?” Benni pressed, raising an eyebrow in Ulean’s direction.

Yet, Ulean knew he had no choice. If the intruders caused trouble with this job, then they’d be in a worse situation than messing up protocol. In a hushed grumble, Ulean said, “They got away.”

“What? Hellen exclaimed with a smile tugging at her lips. “Ho oh, wait until...”

“Save it, Hellen,” Benni order. “Contact Rez and tell him the situation and tell the Muscle Brothers to start hunting for our intruders. Time is of the essence!”

“Right, Benni,” she replied seriously, lifting her red communicator from her belt. She winked playfully at Ulean as she stepped away from Benni and him.

Benni’s steely gaze snapped back to Ulean but slightly softened after a moment. “As for you, Old Man, I want to know everything. How many and who are they? The more information the better chance we’ll be able to track these guys down.”

“There were two, Benni,” Ulean replied calmly, only now lowering his blaster completely. “A man and a girl.”

“Did you get their names? Who do they work for?” Benni questioned. “What they were after?”

“They are a father and daughter team,” Ulean said. “The man called himself Doctor and referred to her as Jenny. And...” Ulean stopped speaking and bit his lower lip.

“What?” Benni asked, looking at Ulean who was now refusing to meet his teammate’s gaze.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Benni. He was one of the few members of his team who would take him seriously. Benni didn’t look down on him or suck-up like an annoying kid. In fact, Benni was quickly becoming a trusted friend, and Ulean didn’t have friends. He just didn’t know if the little false story Pretty had spun was worth telling Benni. It might just be wasting their time. “It’s just something Pretty, I mean, the girl said,” Ulean explained. “Never mind. It’s the personal shield they have... that’s the problem, but...”

“Okay, but what did the girl say?” Benni asked.

Ulean looked nervously at Benni, considering whether to speak.

“Look, I’m not mad at you for losing these two,” Benni told him. “If they had a personal shield, they must be well-trained Interstellar Patrol agents. But we won’t know for sure until we’ve examined everything they said and did. So what is it?”

“Well, it’s silly really,” Ulean chuckled. “The girl, Jenny, had some crazy story about the two of them being Time Lords and coming to visit an exhibit about their people.” He smirked. “It’s crazy I know. Everyone knows that Time Lords aren’t real and...”

“Time Lords?” Benni slowly asked. His blue eyes were wide and filled with a dazed look. Ulean watched, as for a moment, Benni’s lips moved silently. Then Benni’s gaze snapped back towards Ulean and he hurriedly questioned Ulean as his eyes grew serious and intense. “Are you sure that’s what they said?”

“Yeah, but I think they were just trying to distract me, so they could activate their personal shield and...” Ulean tried to explain.

Benni quickly cut in again, his voice becoming severe and cold, “Did they say anything else? Did they give any proof of them being Time Lords? Anything at all!”

“Uhm, well...” Ulean stuttered. He was surprised at how exuberant Benni was about the topic of fairytale beings and it being a possible connection to the intruders. Ulean thought it wasn’t worth the breath that Pretty had used to come up with it, but he still tried to answer. He scrunched his brow in thought for a second or two. “No, not really, Benni. Not that I can remember.”

Benni sighed. His head dipped and a very disappointed look wafted over his face. “Then yes, they probably were lying, Old Man.”

“Yeah... of course,” Ulean agreed unconvinced.

The tingle at the back of his mind flared back to life even brighter. Those half thoughts about Benni quickly grew into doubts; doubts he hadn’t considered over the past weeks. Something in the way Benni had reacted when he mentioned the fairytale heroes: the Time Lords, and now that Ulean really thought about it, a lot of things about Benni didn’t add up. The thoughts about him being too perfect topped that list.

_He’s too good to be true. Too perfect, in fact. Strong, fast, smart, skilled in a variety of areas... and yet he looks young enough to be my son. Of course, considering that I’m 52 years old, I suppose most of the crew is young enough to be my children._

Ulean shuttered at the thought. He hated children.

_I’m getting off track... now think! Benni joined us... when? Was it five months ago... or only five days ago? Had to be longer if I was planning on leaving... but then why don’t I remember him during our last raid on the_ _Balhoon trade freighter_ _three months ago or during the prior two months when we had to go into hiding from the Sontarans after we mistakenly robbed one of their clone ships. No, it had to be five days ago. Yes, I remember. Rez introduced him to us, saying the kid was joining and had already contributed by getting us two buyers interested in historic artefacts from dead civilisations. Yes, yes... that’s right he put this whole endeavour together and..._

“Hey, Ugly Ulean,” Hellen said, waving her hand in front of his face. Ulean was pulled out of his thoughts. “Hey, New Earth to Ulean. Snap out of it!”

“Oi! I’m here, no need to shout, Howling Hellen,” Ulean growled.

“Ooo oh! Someone’s a bit snappy,” Hellen mocked, smirking. “Intruders got your balls?”

“Shut it you two!” Benni ordered. Once Ulean and Hellen backed away from each other, Benni continued. “Hellen, tell the Old Man what the Captain said.”

Hellen sighed as she wiped at a grease smudge on her blaster. “Rez says that he’s sent Lytte and Kytte to investigate the docking side of the station for the intruders. He’s also telling us to shut all doorways after we check sectors. Hopefully, it should corner the intruders into one place. I’ve over ridden the codes on the station’s transmat system, so they won’t be teleporting anymore.”

“They could override them, you know,” Ulean pointed out as he rolled his eyes.

“Ha! Not likely!” Hellen said smugly. “No one can crack my codes. I am brilliant you know.” She flashed a cheeky grin.

“On with it,” Benni ordered, nudging her playfully with the mouth of his blaster.

“Alright, alright,” Hellen said with a soft giggle. She winked at Benni, who gave her a suggestive smile in return. “So Rez wants Benni and me to take this side of the station, but before we do that, I want to know what kind of weapons we can expect. The Muscle Brothers might not care, but I am not going in blind, don’t you agree, Benni?”

Ulean watched as Benni winked playfully at Hellen. “Oh, I agree.”

The tingle of discomfort flared back as he looked between them. Something didn’t feel right and Ulean was very concerned that he was just realising it now.

“So out with it, Ugly Ulean,” Hellen told him with shrewd look. “What kind of weaponry did your scans pick up?”

“Scans?” Ulean said with eyes widening.

“Yeah, you know that green, round device I gave you after you complained repeatedly to Rez that I hadn’t supplied you with the same equipment as everyone else. The one you practically begged me for.”

“Oi! I don’t beg anyone for anything!” Ulean shouted, giving her a dark glare as he started to raise his blaster.

“Fine, but what did it say?” Hellen sighed before asking in falsely sweet voice.

“I...” Ulean said with an uncomfortably tone. “I forgot to scan them.”

“What?!” exclaimed Hellen. She rolled her eyes. “Oh, you really are stupid and ugly, Ulean. You’re even stupider than the Muscle Brothers.”

“Oi!” Ulean roared. “I was busy interrogating.”

“More likely doing target practice, because you are too stupid to follow protocol!” Hellen yelled.

“Enough, Hellen!” Benni interrupted suddenly. “It’s in the past. The focus now is to find the intruders before they cause any real trouble.”

Hellen turned a beaming smile towards him. “Oh, yes, Benni. Whatever you say.”

Ulean felt the tingle in his mind intensify as he and Hellen both said in unison, “I’d follow you anywhere, Benni.”

Hellen’s head turned sharply in Ulean’s direction. “Oi! Don’t do that!” she said angrily. “Don’t repeat what I say!”

Ulean momentarily looked blankly at her before shifting his gaze towards Benni who remained silent. He wore that cold, intense look again. Ulean and Benni stared at each other for a moment, as if it was the first time either had really seen the other.

Then Benni said in a monotone voice, “We better go.” His usually bright blue eyes grew dark. “Where’s that room you found them in, Ulean?”

Ulean hesitated for a moment before he suddenly felt a sharp pain burn across his skull. He grunted as his thoughts became garbled and forced into a new order. Ulean placed a hand against his head in a vain attempt to will the pain away. Then that tingle of doubt slowly was forgotten and Ulean’s mind became clear and focused, but not by him.

He heard a soft voice, which sounded a great deal like Benni’s. “Everything is okay, Old Man. You are safe. Trust me... trust me, Old Man. Tell me everything. Tell me anything.”

“Yes, I’ll tell you everything,” Ulean said robotically, “and anything.”

“Tell me,” the Benni-like voice whispered.

“The exhibit was in Sector 10-YY-2G... it is the enclosed exhibit,” Ulean said in a monotone voice that sounded nothing like him.

“Thank you, Old man,” the Benni-like voice whispered sweetly. “Thank you.”

“Pretty... the girl...,” Ulean muttered.

“What about her?” said the Benni-like voice, sounding as if he was urging him on.

“Wait, do Time Lords have two hearts?” Ulean asked.

There was a pause before the Benni-like voice asked, “Why do you ask?”

“The girl... she said they had two hearts,” Ulean answered, “but it didn’t make sense. It was never in the stories. Was she....”

Then unwillingly, Ulean shut his eyes and his mind suddenly cleared again. The next thing Ulean knew, he felt a pat on his shoulder and turned to see Benni beaming at him. “Thank you, Old Man. We really appreciate your help,”

“What?” Ulean said, very confused about what just happened.

“You said this way, right, Old Man?” Been said, heading in the direction Ulean had come.

“Yeah,” Ulean answered before his brow furrow. “Wait, what?”

“Come along, Hellen!” Benni called over his shoulder as he charged his blaster.

“Hey!” Ulean called after them as Benni and Hellen reached the entrance of the hallway. They stopped and looked back him expectantly. “What about me?”

Hellen gave him shocked expression. “Weren’t you listening to a word I said? Rez wants to talk with you... in private.” She winked before heading down the hallway, leaving a grinning Benni at the hallway entrance.

Ulean’s shoulders drooped. “What? When...”

“You better go, Old Man,” Benni said, gesturing towards the hallway he and Hellen had come down. “Better to get it over with. Tell him we’ll find these intruders and bring them to him alive... just as he ordered.”

“What?” Ulean said questioningly, glancing fearfully at the hallway Benni had gestured towards. “When did he say that?”

But when Ulean turned back towards Benni, the newest member was gone. Ulean sighed as he felt a buzzing sensation in his head. Something was definitely not right with Benni. Ulean feared discovering it might just be more dangerous than capturing these two mysterious intruders.

 

_To Be Continued..._


	9. Words of Fire

Ulean lifted his blaster to the ready position as he stood in the junction point room. A loud humming sound echoed around him, signalling that the blaster was charged to fire. His gaze shifted once more towards the hallway his team members had vanished down a moment ago. The fat, scruffy faced thief shook his head before turning and heading down the hallway from which his team members first appeared from.

About a meter away, through the small vent window of a door marked ‘Cleaning Closet,’ Jenny watched his slow departure. When he was finally out of sight, Jenny released the breath she was holding. 

“That was too close. Far too close,” Jenny sighed. “I thought for sure they’d look in here first, but I guess they aren’t that smart after all. Thank goodness for that.” She sat back on her haunches, calming her frazzled nerves. Drawing in another breath, she considered the predicament of her and her father.

“So that makes six people with huge blasters now and us with...” She looked down at the strange, silver, and octagonal device in her hand. Her gaze skimmed its eight sides covered by several blue buttons. “... a personal shield... of some type. Yeah, I’m feeling the loads better... no weapons and father out for the count. Just great! There’s no way this could possible get worse.”

Jenny mentally scolded herself for making light of the situation. Biting her lower lip, she turned her attention back to her father. Her blue eyes glistened with tears as they locked on to his still, slightly pale face. If she didn’t know better, she might mistake him for being dead. Just thinking about that possibility sent a cold shuttered raking over her body.

_Thank goodness it isn’t that. But I suppose it isn’t that much better._

Slowly, Jenny crawled back towards him and knelt beside him. She reached out and brushed away a couple of dishevelled and sweat soaked strands of hair from his forehead. It wasn’t necessary, but just feeling the warmth returning to his body was somewhat of a reassurance to her. Particularly true, since over the last hour or so, she’d been near frantic with worry about him. She’d checked and double checked him several times. His vital signs had gone from almost nothing to a more regular rhythm.

On examination of his clothed form, Jenny had been partially relieved to find no signs of blaster injury. But she still hadn’t checked his body beneath. She’d contemplated it repeatedly to see if the shot had hit him and where the damage was, but each time she was about to unbutton the maroon dress shirt, Jenny stopped herself. If it had hit him, there would be some sort of mark or burn or hole on his brown trench coat or blue jacket or maroon dress shirt, but there’s none.

“Then what’s wrong with you, Dad?” Jenny asked the quiet room. “What made you pass out and appear near dead?” Her brow furrowed and her voice jumped an octave as moisture threatened to overwhelm her glistening eyes. “You scared me, you know. For a few minutes, I thought you were... I thought you’d left me for good. I don’t want to be the last Time Lords! I don’t even know what it means to be one yet! So you can’t leave me to be the last. Do you hear me, Dad?!”

A nearly overpowering temptation to slap him like Donna would have flooded his mind, but she was too afraid it might make things worse. That was the last thing she wanted. Instead, she let her tears run down her face as she vainly kept wiping them from her red cheeks and focused on trying to think strategically, drawing upon her solider instincts and knowledge.

“First I’ll get you back to the TARDIS, I’m sure this personal shield should help with that. Second, I’ll get you fixed up, good as new... hopefully your medical facilities aren’t too different from a human one. Third, I’ll yell at you for scaring me, ‘cause you did! Fourth, we’ll put a stop to those thieves’ plans,” she told him, drawing several deep breaths between each step of her plan, “and when everything’s right here and we’ve contacted the proper authorities, then I’ll take you back to Donna and let her slap some sense into you. Okay?”

His face remained slack and unresponsive. She took that as him approving her plan.

“I’m glad you agree with me,” Jenny said, sniffing and wiping the remaining tears from her eyes. “Now, let’s see if there is anything we can use in this closet to either fight or to get us back to the TARDIS.” She forced a chuckle. “Maybe if we’re really lucky there’s a secret transmat platform that will teleport us directly to the TARDIS, hmm?”

The Doctor remained silent, but Jenny fought the urge to let her smile falter. Instead, she pushed herself up onto her feet and moved over to the shelves. Jenny’s mind was a jumble of the events of the last ten hours. It started with Donna, forcing Jenny to shower and prepare for dinner. She didn’t think it was completely unreasonable request. At least that’s what Jenny thought, until Donna dragged her to the changing room to choose a dress. Even now Jenny cringed at the horrible choices Donna had suggested. They were all too brightly coloured, too lengthy, or too restrictive, definitely unsuitable if they were suddenly attacked. Over a good thirty minutes, Jenny desperately tried to convince Donna that her fatigues were a better idea. In hindsight, Jenny was even more convinced she knew better than Donna and would use this example in future arguments over appropriate attire.

Unfortunately at the time, Jenny hadn’t won the argument and everything went downhill from there. They landed on Earth, near Donna’s home. Of course, her father had cleverly landed them twelve hours too early for the dinner. Even now Jenny loved her father’s plan to try to get them out of going to Donna’s boring family dinner, but Donna wasn’t swayed in the least. She sent Jenny and her father out for a walk, until dinner time came around. Jenny was still surprised how quickly a simple, boring walk could turn into an exciting adventure of running for their lives from a thug with an energy blaster. Jenny cursed under her breath when she thought about Ulean and what he tried to do to her father. Yet, even that wasn’t enough to distract her from her primary concern: her father’s current silent state.

_It’s too quiet without him going on and on and on about... well, anything. I miss it. Sometimes I wish I could always hear him, feel his presence. Not that I’d ever tell me. That’s probably the last thing he’s huge ego needs, but I think his voice, his constant babbling, is one of my most favourite sounds in the universe. It’s silly, I know, but it makes me feel safe, like no matter what... as long as I can hear it everything will always be alright. Like just the sound of his ranting will keep away the evil of the universe. Strange to say, but it’s how it makes me feel. A small comfort in this constantly changing and crazy life Dad has brought me into. Yet, despite the insanity of it all and often dangerousness, I wouldn’t miss it for all the universe. I just wish I could hear him now... even if it means hearing him being rude again._

Since, at the moment, she was left to herself, Jenny took it upon herself to talk for both of them. “Oh, look, they have a box of acid resistant rubber gloves,” she said somewhat happily, opening the paper box. “Ooo, two pairs in here: a pair for each of us. They could be useful if we need to we need to move anything really acidic.”

That reminded Jenny of a historical military stratagem she knew about.

“Speaking of which, did I ever tell you the story about the Great Milco Revolution? It was one of the great battle strategies downloaded into my memory – when I was created. It came from this Earth exhibition team in 3445 that had just started colonizing this small forest planet with one giant body of water in the M-75 galaxy. They named the planet Milco after their exhibition team leader Thomas Ralle Milco. Anyway, while the exhibition team was setting up a settlement on the planet, the inhabitants known later as the Arperesa, who had eight, spider-like legs and a head kind of like a dog... I think... well, the point is they started attacking the exhibition team. Oh, the battle was amazingly bloody! At the time, the exhibition team was too far out from Earth and its other colonies to contact them for help, and the Arperesa forces were quite formable, quite handy or should I say leggie, if you catch my drift.”

She chuckled to herself. “But the exhibition was smarter. Like you. They realised that they had to think smartly, like you keep telling me. Brains for brawn and all that. So after capturing an Arperesa they ran tests on it to figure out a weakness. It led them to creating a mixture of a strong weed killer and fertilizer to create a highly acidic mixture of nitric acid, heavy hydrogen, and organic acid to burn out the Arperesa’s...”

Jenny stopped short of finishing her story when it dawned on her that her father probably wouldn’t find that story’s human victory as interesting or amusing as she did. Jenny turned her attention back to the shelves, until something else on the shelf caught her attention.

“Oh, hang on a second,” Jenny beamed, lifting a yellow, gallon-sized bottle from the shelves. “You won’t believe what I found. Lookie here, Father. It’s a bottle of carpet cleaner detergent.” She pulled the cap off and sniffed it. “Oh, it almost smells like that sweet banana ice cream you liked so much on Earth. I’m sure you’d enjoy this scent.”

Jenny forced a chuckle as she glanced once more over her shoulder at her father. He was still quiet, his arms resting limply at his sides. Jenny swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Right,” she said before lowering the gloves and bottle on to the floor. Then she returned to digging through the shelves. “Let’s see what else we have here.”

oOo

The Doctor’s eyes flickered open. He found himself lying on a carpeted floor, staring up at a dangling light of the storage closet. He blinked at the white glow of the light as he tried to remember why he was lying on his back in a storage closet. Had he been captured, perhaps by some evil janitors?

_No, that doesn’t seem to ring any bells. Actually it sounds quite ridiculous. Uhumm, I wonder if I’m alone. I hope not; then I won’t be able to tell anyone my joke of being captured by evil janitors and their evil plan to use vacuum cleaners to take over the world, which will only be funny while in the closet._

Blinking a few more times, the Doctor noticed movement to his left. Glancing in that direction, he saw Jenny digging through the shelves of the closet, a small pile of odds and ends just behind her. That’s when everything came rushing back. A slightly painful and numb feeling tingled over his right side. He puffed out a breath, fighting the urge to shut his eyes again. He wasn’t tired, but if his internal clock was correct, he’d been unconscious for more than two hours, too much time to waste for a Time Lord.

“Jenny,” he whispered through a dry throat and instantly she turned toward him. Her eyes were red and wide.

“Dad!” she said earnestly, shoving the stuff in her hands back on to the closet shelves and hurrying to his side. Jenny fell onto her knees next to him before reaching towards his forehead, caressing it. “Are you okay? I thought...”

“It’s okay,” he said, placing a hand over one of hers. He gave it a slight squeeze. “Everything will be okay. I just need to...” A slight groan erupted from his lips as he started pushing himself up.

“Don’t! You’re hurt,” Jenny ordered, holding him down. Her hand connected with the sore area.

He again groaned and gave up his attempt to rise. His body felt stiff, and he couldn’t muster the energy to get up at the moment.

“Where did he hit you, Dad?” she asked as her fingers started to move over his form. “I thought... I thought it didn’t hit. The type of blaster Ulean had didn’t look like the sort...”

“It didn’t, Jenny,” he answered between deep breaths.

Her hands moved over his dress shirt, seeming to be on the hunt for his injury. Occasionally, she touched the sensitive area, and he cringed in reaction. Finally, she started to finger his right side. There was a puzzled look on her face. “Then when?” she asked, starting to unbutton his maroon dress shirt.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, gripping one of her hands. Jenny’s gaze snapped up to meet his and there was fiery look in her blue eyes.

“Of course, it matters!” Jenny declared, shaking off his grip off. “It matters to me.” She undid the lower buttons and then she let out a gasp. Her eyes widened. “Father, when...? This doesn’t look like a blaster wound.”

“It isn’t,” he said, forcing his body to rise and slide along the wall. “It... it happened before and... and it doesn’t matter... not now.” When the Doctor once again rested his back against the cool, steel wall of the closet, he looked down. “Oh.... that... that definitely doesn’t look good.”

The entire lower region of his abdomen was coloured in a blotchy array of sickly purple, blue and pink with long thick veiny lines zigzagging across the area. “Wow! That is a lot worse than I thought.”

_I suppose it makes more sense now why my body forced me into such a deep consuming healing trance_   _and why my body hurt so much that it was difficult to think as quickly and brilliantly as I usually do. Ouch! Perhaps I should have taken that break in the TARDIS I was thinking about before coming to the museum. I just didn’t want to bore Jenny and knowing my luck something bad would happen._

The Doctor paused in thought as he remembered where they were and why.

_Ah, right something did._

He gently pressed down on one of the more bulging veiny lines. A subtle jolt of pain surged across his abdomen. He hissed response.

_Wow, that surprisingly still hurts. If the wound looks like this now, how bad had it been a few hours ago when I was falling into a fountain, complaining about flirtatious young men, and running from scruffy faced men with blasters? I’m just glad said man with blaster wasn’t able to keep up with us or this situation could be a lot worse right now._

“When before?” Jenny inquired, cutting in on his thoughts again, except this time she quite literally had cut into his thoughts.

The Doctor’s gaze slowly rose to meet hers. Her lips were pressed tightly together as if in thought. Her narrowed eyes were focused downward on to his injury. It was then that a shiver ran over his shoulders. He realised Jenny hadn’t just spoken, she’d thought those words.

His gaze narrowed on her as he recalled how, after falling into the fountain, he had sworn he’d also heard Jenny in his mind then. The Doctor had heard her voice that time, of course, calling out to him, but he’d also felt her mind reaching out to him then in mostly broken thoughts. At the time he’d brushed it off, thinking he was just over reacting and in shock about the whole situation. Yet, now that he thought about it, why not? She was after all his daughter, probably just as brilliant as him, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen previous relations with the same abilities before. Jenny was telepathic. It would also explain the strong emotions he’d felt when they were in the Gallifrey exhibit.

_Of course, perhaps she isn’t as strong as me, but for someone who’s never had any sort of training... she’s doing an amazing job of focusing her thoughts and directing them to me. But the question is how aware is Jenny that she is sending me telepathic messages? Is it subconscious or conscious?_

The temptation to reach his mind out to Jenny was strong. It had been so long since the Doctor had made a telepathic connection with someone, particularly one of his own people. He wanted more than anything to feel that connection again, but the Doctor didn’t want to scare her by suddenly pushing his way into her mind. He could, of course, ask, but at the moment he decided there were more important things to be considering than telepathically bonding to Jenny. Besides, it was clear that despite being strong and focused in her telepathy, Jenny was unable to maintain the link, not yet at any rate.

When he heard a sharp intake of breath from her, the Doctor pulled himself back to the present. Jenny’s hands clasped over her mouth and her blue eyes had widened as new tears filled them.

“What?” he asked suddenly worried that, while he’d been busy pondering telepathy, he’d missed something important.

“The fountain,” Jenny gasped. “It happened in the fountain, didn’t it? It happened when I landed on top of you?! It’s my fault!”

He reached out for her hands and pulled them away from her face before wrapping them in his. “It doesn’t matter, Jenny. Right now we’ve got to focus on getting back to the TARDIS,” he said with a small smile.

He saw the uneasiness still her moist eyes.

“Really, I’m fine,” he tried to reassure her.

“You’re a horrible liar, Dad,” Jenny said, sniffling slightly. She withdrew one of her hands from his grasp, and then turned away from him to covertly wipe the tears in her eyes. The Doctor noticed redness, almost as if Jenny was embarrassed of her tears. She coughed overly loudly before continuing. “Anyway, in your condition it will be near impossible to get back to the TARDIS without being spotted, Father.”

“We’ll manage,” he told her with a reassuring smile.

Jenny turned back towards him with a raised eyebrow. She pursued her lips as she stared at him for a moment. Then Jenny’s mouth opened to counter him, but she stopped short. He knew she didn’t believe a word he said. He just hoped she’d go with it. Right now, he didn’t need her arguments and questions.

“Dad...” Jenny said doubtfully. She wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes on him. Drawing in a deep breath through her mouth and nose, she shook her head. “Dad, I don’t think you are completely grasping the kind of situation we’re in here.”

The Doctor knew that tone. He used it quite a bit himself when he was about to lecture a companion about why he was right and he or she was completely and always wrong. The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut as he bit back his annoyance, which wasn’t easy considering he was still in some pain. The kind of ache that gnawed at his strength and willingness to stay civil, but the Doctor managed so far.

“Okay, let’s say we can make it back okay,” Jenny said, speaking simply as if she was talking to a child.

The Doctor’s grip on her hand tightened slightly. He just said, fighting the urge to say something rude, “Ah, huh.”

_Alright, just breathe Doctor, no reason to fly off the handles. Sure, more than likely Jenny hasn’t clue to what she’s talking about or going to suggest. I mean, come on, you’re well over 900 years old and she’s only about two or three weeks old, but still... there’s always a chance that she found something out while I was unconscious. Always a chance... a small one mostly likely.... but I suppose a chance none the less._

So the Doctor listened as patiently as he possibly could.

It was Jenny’s voice that drew him back to the present. “... and the Museum of Lost History is in great danger, Father.” He nodded slowly in agreement.

_See this is good. I’m not being rude and I’m being a good role model for Jenny by holding my tongue and listening. I can be not ginger and not rude. It’s easy! Listening is good; I’ll bet I’m brilliant at it! Of course, some of my past companions definitely made it look easier than this. I wonder if they were as raring to burst forth to speech or complain as I feel right now._

“... and yes, there’s a chance we can make it safely back to the TARDIS, but what about the looters here? What about these valuable and one of a kind pieces of history? We can’t let these heartless thieves steal any of these pieces of the past. What about saving the universe? What about protecting the good and stopping bad guys? I know you love to run, but we can’t always run particularly when....”

Then a few words slipped out. “That isn’t our concern,” the Doctor told her harshly through tight lips. “It’s just stuff! Stuff that no one cares about anymore.”

“I care!” Jenny exclaimed, trying to pull her right out of his grasp. She fixed him with a glare.

The Doctor pulled her right hand towards him as his eyes snapped up and gave her a warning look. His breathing was speeding up, which sent waves of queasiness and pain throughout his body. He was in no condition, and definitely, in no mood to take the time to lecture her. He just wanted her to stop arguing for a second.

_There is danger here and she wants to argue ethics... Now! Stupid... stupid like some... I don’t know... some stupid ape! There are more important things than stone and cloth. Why can’t she see it? How can she place more value on inanimate objects than her own life? I just don’t understand her right now._

“And it does matter,” Jenny told him, interrupting his thoughts. After a few more tugs, Jenny ripped her right hand free from his grasp. She snapped up to her feet, crossing her arms over her chest.

The Doctor forced a breath out as he felt the coming rant. Yet another thing he wished Jenny hadn’t picked up from him was the ability to rant and rattle on and on.

“They aren’t just stuff, Dad! They are pieces of history, pieces of the universe. They belong to the universe! They belong to future generations, not to some greedy hoarder or thief! These anthropologists went to a lot of hard work, so that the generations after them could have a piece of history to refer to, to remember all the billions and billions of people and planets that came before them. Just like you did for Gallifrey! You wanted people to remember the Time Lords, to know who they were and to learn from them. So that people like me that come after you can remember their name and their legacy. That’s how so many other descendents felt. So don’t they have a right to make sure their great-great-great-great grand children’s children can have something to remember the past by? Don’t tell me you want them to take it?”

“No,” the Doctor said slowly and as calmly as he could, “but...”

Jenny cut him off as she continued her rant, gesturing widely with her arms, as she started to pace in the small area on the other side of the storage closet. “No, of course not. No one in their right mind would even consider that right. Especially not you!” She suddenly stopped and snapped in his direction. “You are a hero to the universe!”

That comment caught him off guard. The Doctor blinked a few times at her for a moment. He was tossed between blushing at the comment and the urge to say something rude to stop her talking.

“You are the only person more than capable of stopping evil wherever it may show its ugly head. The only being who stands up for what’s right even when no one else will! You never give up and you don’t run away from danger... you run towards, you face it! So why not now?!”

The Doctor’s head was pounding as he placed a hand against it.

“So why are you just sitting there, letting this happen, Father?! I can’t believe you would! You’re the bloody Doctor!”

“Yes, I am the Doctor!!!” he thundered as his eyes blazed menacingly at her. He slammed his white knuckled fist brutally down onto the carpeted ground with a loud bang. The steel plating below quaked beneath his onslaught.

 

_To be continued..._

 


	10. Broken Line of Communication

It had all been building up. All the anger, the stress, and the pain of the last several hours had finally boiled over in the Doctor’s mind.

His brow was deeply furrowed. His eyes were mere slits, revealing nothing of their usual soft brown. A uncharacteristic snarl curved his lips as he fixed Jenny with a intimidating glower: the sort of menacing look he hardly ever allowed to cover his face or let flare to life even if the Doctor felt the need, because this dark, ominous glare had given him many horrible and sinister nicknames, such as ‘The Oncoming Storm.’ The Doctor also knew the reaction he’d get from it. Time and time again, he’d seen Daleks shrink back in fear and Cybermen tremble in their metal suits just at the hint of it.

Instantly, Jenny’s face fell. Any further words died on her lips. Her mouth just hung open, and her chest rose and fell in rapid, short motions. She stumbled back from him, falling against the storage closet’s other steel wall with a thud. Across her face a look of horrified alarm blared. Looking closely at her, the Doctor could see a subtle tremble raking over her body. Immediately, he regretted his actions.

_What have I done?! I can’t believe I just... and to Jenny. Yes, I was upset. Yes, I was in pain, but she doesn’t deserve this, not Jenny. I never should of... I can’t believe I let my emotions... I only meant to get her to be quiet and to listen to me for one bloody second... not to scare her out of her wits._

No matter what the Doctor had meant, the action had gotten the desired result: Jenny was completely and utterly silent, watching him intently, like a frightened prey staring down the barrel of a gun, and the Doctor knew Jenny didn’t fear guns. She had stood tall and unblinking before Ulean as well as the Humans and Hath on Messaline when they pointed guns at her. So what he’d done was far, far worse.

The Doctor dipped his head and tried to calm his body and mind. He knew he had needed to let all the stress, the pain, and the emotions out, particularly in his current weakened state, and unfortunately, it had come out directed towards Jenny. He hated himself for letting his control slip, for letting his emotions control him. It was wrong, and he knew it. The Doctor slowly brought himself under control again.

In a soft and serious tone the Doctor started to speak. “Jenny...,” he said, drawing in another deep breath, “Jenny, all these artefacts are just pieces of stone, cloth and metal. I understand your need to protect history, to do what you think is right, but you must understand: I. Don’t. Care.” He took another deep breath before continuing. “Despite their significance to history, to the universe, it doesn’t matter to me. I only care about getting you and me out of here safely. You are what matters to me at this time. You will always be more important to me.”

The Doctor lifted his gaze again and saw Jenny’s head was dipped and her were eyes shut. She was drawing in a few deep breaths and forcefully swallowing a lot before she breathed in a much softer voice, “I... I understand, Doctor.”

He winced, and then cursed under his breath. Not only had there been a subtle tremble to her voice, but she’d called him Doctor, not Father or Dad. Jenny had never called him Doctor before. Not even right after she came into being. It made his hearts ache, and the Doctor wished he could erase the last few minutes from time.

“Jenny...” he started to say, fighting the temptation to let his emotions get the better of him again.

But Jenny interrupted him, as if she was continuing where she left off. Her voice was still soft and trembling, “I... I didn’t... didn’t mean to... I just...” She drew in a ragged breath again. Then she shut her eyes for a moment.

The Doctor rested his full weight against the steel behind him and his gaze remained trained on Jenny’s slouched position. He decided to remain quiet, waiting for Jenny to continue speaking.

She drew in one more deep breath before going on in a less trembling voice. “The thieves are still out there, Doctor, which means more than likely they stand between us and the TARDIS. I... I was only worried. I’m sorry.”

The Doctor quietly nodded his understanding. “It’s okay. You’re right to be concerned,” the Doctor agreed, straightening his form. He began to push himself up the wall to a standing position. His legs wavered slightly, and Jenny’s eyes snapped open when they thudded against the wall a few times.

“Well, I... I worry that in your current condition that... that it isn’t going to be safe or easy to reach the TARDIS,” she said, still watching him closely.

“We’ll have to do our best,” the Doctor told her, forcing some control over his body. After he felt a bit more stable on his legs, he started to button his dress shirt closed.

Jenny shook her head negatively, starting to straighten herself against the wall. She appeared to need it to stand as much as him. “No offense, Doctor, but wouldn’t it be wiser for me to go and make sure the way is clear for you.”

“No!” the Doctor declared, glaring at her. This time his gaze and tone was much tamer than before. He didn’t want to scare Jenny again; he couldn’t bear to see her that frightened of him anymore, but he knew he had to make her see reason. Whatever it took, he wouldn’t let Jenny put her life in danger, because he couldn’t bear it if something happened to her. “It isn’t safe, Jenny.”

“We don’t have a choice!” Jenny said more loudly, scowling at him as she straightened herself. Her voice was starting to gain a sharp edge to it again.

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed on her, and then all the hardness and determination in her face fizzled away. She coughed as if uncomfortable and slumped back against the wall, putting more distance between the two of them.

Her voice was immediately softer. “I mean, if we want to get safely back to the TARDIS, one of us has to go check, Doctor, a recon of sorts just to make sure we know what we are dealing with, and between you and I, I’m a lot more able to that at this time.”

A thousand fears rush through him and he felt each like a knife to his hearts. He shivered at the thought of Jenny putting herself in harm’s way for him. He just couldn’t allow it to happen, not as long as he was alive and able to save them both. He frowned at her and inquired in a serious tone, “And what precisely do you think you can do, if you run into them?”

Jenny shrugged as she maintained unwavering eye contact with him. “Whatever I need to,” she said simply before coughing, “to get us back safely, Doctor.” She might be terrified of him at the moment, but she was trying her hardest to stay somewhat strong before him.

_A lamb before a lion,_  he thought ruefully.

He’d give her credit for that. “Nothing! Just as I figured,” he declared. He breathed heavily, carefully pushing himself away from the wall.

She was still calling him Doctor, which said to him that he’d damaged what little of a relationship they’d built up over today and the last few weeks. The Doctor wondered how bad the condition of that new relationship was at the moment and if there was any way to repair the developing bond. For it had taken him all this time to get use to someone calling him Father and Dad again. He was just starting to enjoy it, delighted when the words slipped cheerfully and freely from Jenny’s lips or shimmered in her beautiful blue eyes. He didn’t want to lose it now.

At the same time, the Doctor knew he had to treat Jenny like the companion she was. He had to help her realise there were better ways; that fighting and yelling often weren’t the best solutions. His responsibility was to make her a better person, and perhaps one day, a great Time Lady.

“Now, I will agree you are, well, more able...” He groaned, touching his wounded side when it started to throb. “... at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you go crazily racing out of this storage closet! That’s just going to get us both killed!”

Jenny nodded her understanding. “Okay,” she said more calmly. This time she managed to push herself away from the wall and stood at attention, placing her hands at her sides just like a good little soldier. It was obviously her way to handle a situation she couldn’t face. Her genetically embedded military instinct was kicking in quite nicely and the Doctor really didn’t like that. “So what is your plan, Doctor?”

He didn’t want a soldier – Jenny was so much more than just some soldier, she better than that –, but if it was the only way to reach her at the moment, he’d play the general she so often associated with him. Yet, only so that he could make her realise it wasn’t the soldier aspect that made her who she was, but something more amazing inside of her.

The Doctor took a similar stance to her, standing straight and tall and clasping his hands behind him. He fixed her with the sort of stare he recalled the Brigadier giving his UNIT soldiers so many incarnations ago. He drew upon his old friend’s persona as he chose his words carefully.

“First thing first, Jenny, let’s be clear that our primary objective is to get back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor declared.

“Yes, Doctor,” she agreed with a short head nod.

“We’re not engaging these shoot-them up looters in any unnecessary combat, putting our lives on the line, just to save some old pieces of cloth and stone. Any manoeuvres that don't accomplish our primary objective or put our primary objective at risk won't be tolerated,” he told her without shifting his eye contact from her. “Is that clear?”

There was a flicker of hesitance in Jenny's eyes. But, after a moment, she nodded her agreement again. “Yes, Doctor.”

He cursed again by her use of his chosen name and not fatherly reference, but he bit his lip from saying anything. He knew just coming out and demanding she call him Father and Dad would only add more bricks to the wall that was starting to form between them. The Doctor decided instead to make compromise, a sort of beginnings of a new bridge between them; perhaps through making a small peace offering to her, he could subtlety tell her he still cared for her. He hoped he could show her that he didn’t hate her as he suspected she might think after his outburst.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t, if we get the chance, but...” he said, moving towards her and breaking momentarily out of his Brigadier persona. He reached forward with his right hand forward and nudged her chin gently upward, so her gaze would meet his gaze. “I would rather lose everything here than ever lose you.” He gave her a pleading smile.

The soldier facade slipped for a moment and Jenny’s cheeked were coloured in a light pink colour. A small smile flickered over her face before she tried to smoother it with a serious expression. “That is clear, sir.”

_Well, sir is a step closer to father, I suppose._

“Good,” he said, increasing his smile. “Now first thing is to figure out who our adversaries are,” he said.

Jenny nodded her understanding before starting to relax her posture. “Well, we know that there are six of them, sir” she said.

The Doctor clasped both of his hands behind him, before he raised an eyebrow and fixed Jenny with a baffled look. “Do we now? How do we know this?”

“While you were out, sir, I heard three of the thieves talking outside in the junction point room where this storage closet is located.” Jenny pointed to the vent in the door. “I saw a slender, red haired woman who looked and sounded like a technologies expert. I believe Ulean called her Hellen. Then there was Ulean and a tall, muscular, dark haired man, who I believe Hellen and Ulean called Benni. They were all well-armed too. Also they also referred to their leader, Rez, and two others they call the Muscle Brothers who had been sent out to look for us. I think that’s all of them. And...”

Jenny paused for a second her brow furrowed in deep thought. After a moment, Jenny shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that Benni and Hellen headed in the direction of the Gallifrey exhibit, while Ulean returned to wherever their ship is located.”

“But there could be more,” the Doctor commented before gazing towards the shelves beside them.

He reached in looking at few items. His mind was already turning with a plan or two. Also the Doctor was curious what had made Jenny pause in thought, but he decided to refrain from inquiring for the meantime, and instead, he focused on figuring out a plan to make the way back to the TARDIS safe for them. When Jenny didn’t immediately speak, the Doctor glanced in her direction.

Jenny’s head was dipped in thought and her brow was furrowed again. “I suppose, but...” Jenny said.

He raised an eyebrow in her direction. “Until we have confirmation we’ll assume about six,” the Doctor continued in a very Brigadier-like voice. “Right?”

Quickly, Jenny’s gaze rose to meet his gaze. “Yes, sir,” Jenny agreed with a short head nod.

“Good,” the Doctor said as looked back at the closet shelves. “So there are at least six armed thieves between us and the TARDIS.”

“Will the TARDIS be safe?” Jenny asked, sounding concerned.

“She’s fine,” the Doctor said, picking up a yellow bottle with the printed words ‘ammonia’ on it. He dug deeper into the shelf and found a brown box with a dusting of a white powdery material its sides. He smiled at the items before continuing. “I doubt they’ll even notice her.”

“So we have six armed people and us without any weapons,” Jenny said with a heavy sigh.

The Doctor returned the items to the shelf before turning back to Jenny, who had folded her arms over her chest. He lifted his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and gave her a critical look. “Oi! We have some.”

Jenny shook her head. “I mean offensive ones,” she explained.

“Guns!” the Doctor scoffed as his gaze narrowed. “I know exactly what you meant!” His voice grew louder and angrier. He could see Jenny starting to move back from him again, pressing herself against the wall. “Haven’t I lectured you enough that guns don’t solve anything? Haven’t I...!”

The Doctor cut himself off, realising he was letting his worry and pain get the better of him again. This wasn’t helping. He coughed. “Sorry.”

Jenny drew in a breath. She nodded for him to go on.

“So we have the old sonic,” he said, pocketing his sonic screwdriver and digging around in his pocket. “And we have my personal shield.” It was then that the Doctor noticed a vacant space in his pocket where the octagonal device was definitely not. “Wait! It’s gone!”

“No, it’s not,” Jenny said producing the personal shield device from her pocket. “It’s here.”

The Doctor snatched it back and gave her a stern look, refraining from glaring at her. “You took it!” he said crossly. He couldn’t believe she’d taken it out of his pocket, but even more than that, the Doctor was very worried about what she might have had planned for the device. If he hadn’t woken up when he did, who knows stupid thing Jenny might have done.

“Of course. Without weapons, how else do you expect me to combat them?” Jenny said questioningly. “And with you out cold, I needed some help in getting us back safe and...”

“What would you have done when it ran out of power after the first three hits?” the Doctor snapped, interrupting her explanation. His eye brows rose up his forehead as he looked at her expecting an answer other than the obvious ‘I don’t know.’

Jenny looked puzzled, taking a step closer to him. “What do you mean?” she inquired.

“Nothing, that’s what I say,” the Doctor growled, ignoring her question. “This device has a limited supply of power. In other words, it can reflect energy and projectile weapons a limited amount of times before shutting down and becoming completely useless to the user. I used most of its power to get you and myself safely away from our friend Ulean back there.”

“I didn’t know,” Jenny admitted as her shoulders sagged.

“Of course you didn’t!” the Doctor spat. “You weren’t thinking again!”

Instantly, Jenny’s eyes narrowed at him. He could see she was tempted to yell back at him, but as before, the hint of fear in her eyes showed she wouldn’t cross him again. Instead she murmured angrily and dipped her head. She drew in a few deep breaths before flashing him a rueful grin. “Lucky I have you then, Doctor” Jenny beamed, leaning in close to him.

He smiled back, tapping the device lightly against Jenny’s nose. “Yes, you are.”

 

_To be continued..._


	11. All In the Mind

_Two hearts. Why did Ulean say ‘two hearts?’ How could he know?!_

Those two seemingly innocent words, ‘two hearts,’ wouldn’t leave Benni alone. Even as he tried to remain focused on his mission, they pestered him. He could barely keep his vigilance up as he led Hellen down yet another curving hallway in the Museum of Lost History. Instead, he found his mind wandering. Those two little words could mean a great deal to his bosses back at  _The_   _Sector_ , perhaps even more than the success of his current covert mission.

_What I want to know is how someone as backwatered and uninformed as Ulean knows that fact? He couldn’t. He shouldn’t! No one should know, not anyone living in this time at least. Many people are not even privy within The Sector to that simple fact about a Time Lord’s biology. As for outside The Sector very little reference remains, except in terms of myth. And who wants to bog down children’s bedtime stories with technical and irrelevant constructs? No one would. And yet, Ulean knows. How does he know? Then again... I suppose what I should be asking myself is how does this blonde girl, Jenny, know?_

Benni quietly mulled that question over in his head as he caught sight of arching doorway ahead of him and Hellen. They were approaching yet another junction point room. He came to a halt and raised a fist, signalling Hellen to stop. The sound of her footsteps soon stilled. After a few seconds, Benni lifted his large, and in his opinion, ineffective blaster and he slowly advanced forward. With each step he took, he reached out all his senses in hopes of detecting movement, sound, or the presence of other beings. He sensed nothing and no one.

When he was in the threshold of the arching doorway, he carefully knelt down and placed his blaster out in front of him. Benni quickly took note of every hallway, corner, shadow tinted space, and arching doorway of the junction point room. They were all potential hiding places for intruders or traps. They would have to move with great care and examine all of them before continuing.

_An ineffective and primitive approach, and there is no time to waste, if we’re going to find these intruders and discover who they are and what they knowledge about Time Lords. No, there are far, far better ways to check for life signs and energy signatures, even in this day and age._

There was the sound of movement to Benni’s left and then Hellen spoke in a hushed voice, “Benni-babe...”

Benni’s head snapped in Hellen’s direction. His eyes narrowed, giving her a silencing glare, which immediately she obeyed.

_Stupid techie! With all that supposedly advanced mathematical thinking going on in her big, fat head, you’d think she’d be smarter than the rest and keep her big trap shut! We are in a potentially dangerous situation. Intruders could be anywhere, listening or preparing to strike. But no, she’s quite content to give away our current position without thinking about any of that. She’s just as stupid as the rest of them. Typical human! Typical needy and big mouthed human! I’ll be glad when this mission is over and done._

Benni’s left arm quickly extended in her direction, and he pointed his index and middle fingers at her. She blinked at him for a moment before nodding once. Still glaring at her, Benni used the two fingers to make a series of small circular motions. Hellen’s eyes watched the movements, while Benni slowly bent his left arm into a right angle. There he stopped with his index and middle fingers pointing upward. He waited for a confirmation nod from Hellen; she gave it after a moment.

He lowered his left arm and returned his left hand to its position on his blaster. Then Benni watched Hellen lift a green scanner from her belt. She pressed a series of small blue buttons on its circumference, while balancing her blaster on her left knee. After a soft double beep from the scanner, Hellen held it out before her and slowly started to move it across the doorway before them. Benni waited quietly for the results her scans. He took the time to consider his thoughts about the girl Ulean had mentioned.

_Two hearts. The girl allegedly told Ulean that she was a Time Lord and had two hearts. How did she know that Time Lords have two hearts? I suppose... I could assume the girl’s just a very, very good guesser... or maybe she is some sort of two-hearted alien herself... not too uncommon in this era of humanity, though she can’t be a Time Lord. There is only one and it can’t be her. Not possible. It must be just a giant coincidence....... Except, I’ve seen too much of the strange and unexpected in my travels to believe in mere coincidence. No, something feels... off. For instance, how did she and her father get aboard without us detecting them? I wonder... if they had some sort of..._

“No life signs, Benni-babe,” Hellen said a bit too loudly for Benni’s liking before she gave him a huge grin, “besides us, I mean.”

_Like a dog waiting for a treat, and just as loud and annoying. Pathetic! Absolutely pathetic!_

Even as he mentally insulted Hellen, Benni flashed a congratulating grin in her direction. He might not like his current company, but he knew how to fake friendliness and civility. “Good job, babe!” he said happily, before rising from his crouched position. He took the moment to check his blaster, an old habit he’d picked during his time at the Time Agency.

When he heard Hellen’s footsteps hurry forward, Benni’s gaze snapped up from his check. Benni’s blue eyes narrowed on her and he mentally scolded her hasty movement across the room. She didn’t even bother to keep an eye out for potential trouble. Instead, she focused on reattaching the scanner to her belt. He scoffed softly.

_How can anyone call themselves a thief and be so careless with their movements in a foreign and dangerous environment? She’s too confident in her abilities and technical devices to even realise, I’ll bet. But I suppose none in this group are any better, all assuming they know best and that they can see danger if it is standing right in front of them. If they could, then I wouldn’t have been able to so easily incorporate myself into their little band of misfit thieves. Well, not to worry about that now. I have more important things to consider._

A soft crackle from his communicator pulled Benni’s attention away from his thoughts. A low growl-like voice said, “Bean-boy, come in. It’s Kytte and Lytte.”

Benni rolled his eyes and lifted the communicator.  _Bean-boy_ , how he loathed that nickname the Muscle Brothers had given him. He wasn’t a boy, hadn’t been for some time, and he certainly wasn’t a type of seed. Of course, Benni wasn’t stupid either. He knew they meant the nickname as a compliment about his intelligence. Even so, Benni still quietly fumed whenever they called him it.

Outwardly, Benni plastered a big fake smile on to his face and cheerfully answered, “I read you, Kytte. What have you and your brother discovered so far?”

“Nothing yet, Bean-boy. No ships or people insight,” Kytte said before chuckling wickedly. “But we’re gonna find them soon enough, and when we do, we’re gonna make them pay for crossing us.”

Benni groaned at Kytte’s dark humour. His blue eyes narrowed on to the round, black device accusingly when Lytte’s booming laughter joined Kytte’s oafish laughter. For a few seconds, Benni fumed and resisted the urge to say a few choice curses. He had just managed to calm himself again when he heard the unmistakable sound of weapons being unnecessarily charged and fired – presumably at nothing. The two thick-headed brutes were at it again. Not only were they in poor taste and threatening to wreck Benni’s plans, but they were wasting ammunition for nothing. That was the last straw for Benni. His nerves had been stretched well beyond reason. So, without warning, he snapped.

“No you won’t, you  **dunder** head **ed**  buffoons!” Benni declared angrily and louder than he intended. A definite tone of threat reverberated in his voice. It was like nothing he had ever used amongst these humans, and Benni knew it a second after he’d done it.

The laughter and blaster fire on the communicator immediately fell silent. Even Hellen, who was already half way across the junction point room, jumped and spun around in surprise.

Benni mentally cursed as he quickly reapplied his chummy smile and tone. “I mean, don’t you remember what Rez said, Kytte?” he asked, followed by a false jolly laugh.

Kytte and Lytte's only answer was an uneasy silence. Benni said several curses under his breath as he realised that, with that out-burst, he had blown his cover. More than that, he’d just opened himself up to trouble, which he definitely didn’t need with his mission nearly complete, and possible Time Lords about. He had to think quickly.

_Stupid, stupid Benni! You might as well just said, ‘I was sent here to screw with you and your little ragged group of thieves. I’m your real enemy!!!’ Stupid Benni! There is a time and a place for releasing frustration, but not now, not when you are so close to the end. Now before you know it, it will be goodbye Benni, probably shot in the head. That’s not going to happen. I still got time... and my special weapon._

Benni’s grin grew wide, showing off his bright white teeth. He acted as his former supervising captain had once told him, ‘without hesitance and applying all your skills and wits.’ In particularly, Benni called upon the skill he had inherited from his father.

Still holding the communicator to his mouth, Benni slowly shut his eyes and drew in a few deep, lung-filling breaths. His smile melted into an expressionless but calm look. All his attention was drawn within himself. It was as if the outside world momentarily ceased to exist for Benni. He knew nothing but the darkness and light that made up the realm of his mind.

In there he was not a person, but a state of mind. He was the darkness and the light, just like his father had explained to him when Benni was but a boy. Benni drew upon the darkness and the light, mixing them together. Pressing and stretching them, until the light consumed the darkness and started to flare brighter and brighter with each passing nanosecond. Before long, Benni had created at the very centre of his mind a blazing bright red orb. This was him, or at least, a representation of his being, his energy, and his thoughts. He admired the perfectly formed bright red orb as it spun like a red star rotating on an vertical axis. If Benni had been a vain human, he might have made a bold comment, but Benni knew better than that and knew that time of the essence.

_Without hesitance_ , Benni thought.

Drawing in another deep breath, Benni slowly opened his eyes, revealing an eerie red glow emanating from them. It was a reflection of the blazing red orb within his mind. As he drew in yet another deep breath, Benni thought of propelling that blazing red orb of himself from his mind, like tossing a ball. It flew, knowing no boundaries of the physical or mental realms. Through hallways, rooms, and walls it zipped by unnoticed and leaving no sign of its passage. The blazing red orb travelled across the space to a brightly lit hallway on the docking side of the station. There the two overly fit and well-muscled brothers stood, looking blankly at Kytte’s black communicator.

For a brief moment, Benni had the sensation of floating like a spectre over them, just watching their blinking and baffled expressions. It almost felt too easy as if he was a hunter looming over his unsuspecting prey. Again, Benni felt tempted to mentally make a smug remark, but once again, he reminded himself of what his captain from the Time Agency would have said to him back at the Time Agency all those years ago.

Benni mentally pictured dividing the blazing red orb into two smaller but equal red orbs, and then placed one over the head of each of the Muscle Brothers. After the briefest of moments, Benni, without another moment of hesitance, drove the glowing red orbs down upon Kytte and Lytte and straight into their minds. Neither man made any sort of noise, but yet Benni could hear them. More than just that, suddenly, Benni  _was_  the Muscle Brothers, while still being slightly aware of himself in the junction point room with Hellen on the other side of the station.

Just like Benni had done with Ulean an hour ago and as he had been doing to the entire team over the last few days, he consumed the Muscle Brothers’ minds. Their thoughts, memories, and mental processes were his to do with as he wished. Benni could twist and order the contents of the Muscle Brothers’ minds any way he wanted. Not surprisingly, completing the task was much easier than it had been with Hellen, Ulean, or Rez. The Muscle Brothers were, after all, low on the mental scale.

Kytte made a grunting noise over the communicator before he and Lytte said robotically in unison, “No, please tell us.”

Bending their minds was so simple to Benni that it was just too tempting for him not to manipulate them further than necessary. So he did with a smug satisfaction.

“Yes, yes, please enlighten us with your superiorness, Brilliant-Benni,” the Muscle Brothers said in unison.

Benni smirked and slightly chuckled. “Rez wants them alive, boys, remember?” he said soothingly into the communicator, pacing the junction point room, while placing his commands into the Muscle Brothers’ minds.

_You will obey me, is that understood!?_

“Yes,” Kytte and Lytte said robotically in unison.

_I don’t care if your stupid team leader didn’t really say so, because I do! I want these intruders alive. Do you understand?_

“Yes,” Kytte and Lytte said together over the communicator.

_If they know one thing about Time Lords, perhaps they know more or perhaps they are Time Lords, which would be even better. While more than likely it’s just a one in a million shot, I believe risking your lives is well worth it... maybe even risking this mission might be worth finding out._

“Yes, we understand,” Kytte said robotically over the communicator. “Now I remember. Rez wants them alive.”

“Yes, alive,” Lytte reconfirmed. “You is right, Kytte. I remember now too.”

“Good,” Benni piped up with a smile. “I’m glad to hear that.”

He released his hold on Kytte and Lytte, but left the imprinted thought of not hurting the intruders. Imprinting wasn’t the most effective or long-lasting approach, Benni preferred it to over-stretching his mental abilities for long periods of time.

_It’s one thing to control people’s minds when they’re beside me, but trying to control multiple minds, no matter how simple, over a great distance, while still being alert enough to recognize and deal with any potential dangers is quite another. And I’m not risking my life unnecessarily. Not for something that isn’t even part of my assignment. Or even a definite yet. Better to make your enemy do it, I always say._

“Now you two boys run along and remember to keep your blasters on stun. No reason to do any unnecessary damage now, right?” Benni said condescendingly.

“Right,” Kytte replied, sounding dazed but still clearly understanding his orders. “See you later, Bean-boy.” Then the communicator went quiet.

Once again, Benni rolled his eyes at the ridiculous nickname. He returned his communicator to his belt. There was no question in Benni’s mind about being glad that this mission was almost over. It was becoming too much for him in many ways. At the top of list was the huge strain the mission was having on his mental faculties. Dealing with five minds, which were as different from each other as any minds could be, was giving Benni constant headaches. More and more frequently over the last few days, he found himself slipping off to mediate. He found it difficult to juggle all of them without losing complete control of any one of them.

Benni gently rubbed his temples for a moment, trying to bring focus to his own thoughts again. Benni didn’t want to risk losing himself amongst all the others, which was a very real danger his father had warned him repeatedly.

Not far down the list from that was dealing with this group of arrogant and narrow-minded humans. They were grating on his nerves. He’d never gotten along with humans or those who demanded to be called human. In fact, he preferred not, if at all possible, to interact with them. They didn’t like him as much as he didn’t like them, so he’d have preferred to cut out all the pretences and pleasantries.

But Benni’s life wasn’t his own anymore. He was simply an agent, a tool of sorts, following orders. So Benni grimaced and bared the annoyance of this mission and the human aspects. Yet still, he decided to request a bit of time off for mediation after he returned, even though getting any free time was highly unlikely knowing  _The Sector’s_ policies.

_Just like the Time Agency’s policies were... it’s ‘time doesn’t rest, so why should we.’ Blag! Sometimes I wish I had a normal job, a normal life, but I suppose normal doesn’t apply to people like me, at least not in human terms and certainly not in a human run universe. Although, since the bosses did express a high interest in Time Lords, perhaps news of them might just make me an exception to the rule of ‘no rest.’_

Benni chuckled at the thought.

_Well, I suppose I can always hope._

Shaking his head, Benni turned back towards Hellen. It was then that he saw her looking at him, sort of dumbfounded and slightly disturbed. He noticed her hands were gripping tightly to her blaster, and he picked up a distinct series of thoughts from her about shooting him.

_Can’t have that now, can we?_

Benni slipped his smile back on to his face. “What?” he said.

He saw Hellen swallow nervously and noticed she started to raise her blaster. Quickly, Benni’s eyes narrowed on her, and as he had down before with the Muscle Brothers, Benni drew himself back to the darkness and light in his mind and focused, until once more the red blazing orb of him formed in the centre of his mind. Then he propelled the blazing red orb towards her. Suddenly, he was Hellen.

Benni could feel her mind: all her thoughts, all her memories, all her dreams, and all of her mental processes clicking away in her head. He sensed that she was slipping from his influence and that all the false memories he had placed in there over the last few days were fading too quickly.

He swore under his breath again. Benni realised that in his rush to influence the Muscle Brothers and to complete his mission sooner, he’d momentarily forgotten about little, computer-inclined Hellen, who despite being thick at times, was still smart enough to put two and two together. She’d slip free almost completely.

“Is something wrong, Hellen?” he asked calmly, not really expecting her to answer.

“Ah,” she said simply before blinking. In the time it took Hellen to blink, his more powerful mind clamped down on her mind.

Benni quickly sifted through it, digging for just the right memories – both false and real – and the perfect thoughts to bring to the forefront. They were thoughts of him and of them together. They were excellent, emotion-filled memories and thoughts for her to have, because he knew they made her feel good, made her happy and giggly, and more importantly allowed her to be feel very, very friendly towards him. It was one of his favourite methods for dealing with human females.

His experience had taught him how to handle, to control, to manipulate and to compel human females. There were only a few specific, sometimes varying, key sensations, words, and impulses that would get human females to do almost anything without question. Among the most common were pleasant emotions and strong impulsive desires connected to physical contact and sexual activities.

Hellen was no different from any other human female. He had learned quickly that what she wanted was a man who wasn’t her equal or her better, but still someone who could appreciate her as both a brilliant engineer and as a beautiful woman. Her need for a lover, a friend, a confidant had worked perfectly into Benni’s plans. Despite how the thought of physical contact with her turned his stomach, Benni used her needs and desires to his advantage. After all, he was a trained agent who knew how to put duty before his own wants.

Benni smiled sweetly at Hellen, whose eyes were still shut, slowly approaching her. He knew what she wanted and would give it to her, if it meant she’d stay pleasant for a while longer. Stopping in front of her, Benni leaned in close. He could feel her warm breath brush across his face as he angled his head.

“Tell me, babe,” Benni whispered sweetly to her. “Tell me anything.” Then he pressed his lips to hers, giving her a deep, comforting kiss.

Hellen giggled as Benni pulled back from her a bit. She opened her eyes as a bright red blush coloured her cheeks. A look of adoration spread liberally over her face. “Nope! I’m fantastic... as long as you are here, Benni-babe.”

“Glad to hear it, babe,” Benni said with a half smile, pulling himself up to his full stature.

Hellen pointed at a hallway on the right side of the current junction point room. “I just wanted to say that sector 10-YY-2G is in that direction, Benni-babe,” Hellen beamed before winking suggestively.

Benni held back the urge to roll his eyes or cringe at Hellen’s obvious flirting. He simply smiled as usual.

“Perhaps, Benni-babe, if there still aren’t any ‘intruders,’ we can take a quick break for something more pleasurable, if you get my drift,” she said seductively, running a gloved finger along the zipper of his fake security uniform. “You must be awfully hot in that disguise.”

Benni arched an eyebrow and chuckled softly.

_Humans and their sexual impulses. No matter when or where, it never changes. Typical lusty humans and their need to shag everything in sight. But I suppose, pleasure is pleasure and in the end if I enjoy myself, that’s all that really matters. I think cleaning up loose ends will be the most pleasurable experience of this mission._

Benni just smirked at Hellen in return and gestured for her to lead the way.

 

_To be continued..._


	12. Trapping the Hunters

Jenny was quiet and still. She dared not move or make a sound; she simply waited in the shadows as two people in black security uniforms crept past her position. They were comrades of Ulean, and Jenny alone was responsible for dealing with them, which just was fine with her.

Right now, she didn’t want her father’s company. She didn’t want to hear his ramblings or rude comments. After his unfounded, fury-fuelled outburst towards her, Jenny wanted to be as far from him as she could be. She needed time to collect her thoughts and actually consider the man – the Time Lord – who she claimed blood relations to and if she still wanted to do so.

Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Jenny shoved those painful notions aside and tried to focus on doing what the progeneration machine had, for the lack of a better word, trained her to do. Jenny was a soldier. She had strategic and military instincts incorporated into every aspect of her being. They motived her thoughts and actions. She could follow any order without delay or question, just because her commanding officer told her to. She could stay one-step ahead of her enemies without losing track of them. She knew when to be quiet and stealthy, particularly when tracking, and when to be brash and quick on her feet, such as during an attack. Now was definitely a time for the former.

When the red haired woman and the tall, well-toned man with dark hair moved beyond view, Jenny left the dark depths of the display indent. She slid silently along the inner wall towards the opening, not daring to let her boots thud or scrap against the black material that lined the display. In her mind, she thanked her father’s sonic screwdriver for being able to quietly deactivate the display’s activation program. Otherwise, the display wouldn’t be dark, but instead filled with some holographic scene that could potentially give her away.

As her father breezed through her thoughts again, Jenny squeezed her eyes shut and tightened her left hand’s grip around the little metal tube with the blue tip. She could still hear the sharp cruelness of her father’s voice and see the pure unadulterated rage that burned across his sharply drawn face. Jenny had truly thought he was about to kill her, and for the first time in her life, she hadn’t been able to find the strength to either fight or run. Forcing back the terror coursing through her, Jenny focused on the sonic screwdriver. Not that sonic devices were a new concept for her, but it was a slightly unrelated topic to her father and the incident in the cleaning closet.

Jenny had decided she was starting to see the appeal of the sonic screwdriver. In fact, she liked it. Even though it wasn’t much of a direct, offensive weapon, the sonic screwdriver did have its uses. She wondered how hard it was to make another. Perhaps, if she decided to stay on her father’s ship after all of this, she could ask him to make one for her, or at the very least, show her how to construct such a device. Considering that the sonic screwdriver was possibly a good excuse to stay with her father, Jenny felt a tiny bit better about him. Not that she was ready to be as open and talkative as they had been back on Earth or in the Gallifrey exhibit, but the sonic screwdriver was a new connection that didn’t immediately make her dread meeting up with him later. It was a small part of her father she still wanted to keep close to her, and perhaps, it was one positive thing Jenny could still say about him.

_He’s good at building useful things... devices and the like... well, useful and nonlethal things at least. I suppose a man... a Time Lord can’t be all bad if he builds devices like a sonic screwdriver, right?_

Taking this more positive direction with her thoughts, Jenny dared to let a small smile curve her lips before returning her attentions to the two museum thieves she was currently trailing. She glanced around the corner into the hallway and spotted them again. Jenny took a few moments to learn more about her enemy, just as she had done from the cleaning closet earlier.

One of the thieves was a young woman about Jenny’s height with very short, spiky red hair and striking green eyes. From the few words Jenny had caught previously, the red haired woman sounded like a technologies expert, but Jenny thought the girl, Hellen, acted every bit the part of a flirtatious teen. She was drooling over the other thief, which Jenny could partially understand.

A new and fuller smile curved Jenny’s lips as her gaze shifted to the tall, slightly muscular human-like male. He had nice short, thick black hair that didn't seem as tossled as her father's, but definitely looked a bit wild. His piercing blue eyes shined with an intelligence as well as something that Jenny couldn't quite place. All she knew was that the more she watched him, the more she couldn't bring herself to turn away.

_He's so human and so very, very not. All the right angles... very, very well toned and filled out just where a girl would like and nowhere where she wouldn’t. He's perfect, almost too... and yet there's uniqueness that I can't put my finger on... but I must say, Benni... I mean this thief, definitely is much easier on the eyes than Ulean,_  Jenny thought before she stopped short and scolded herself for such a trivial and emotional thought.

Instead, she reminded herself that these two people, Hellen and Benni, were potentially dangerous thieves who were out to capture, and mostly likely, kill her and her father. Once she got her priorities corrected, Jenny returned her attention to them with a serious expression. They moved slowly down the hallway to the Gallifrey exhibit, much slower than Jenny would have liked, but she supposed, it showed more intelligence than Ulean. By being careful and not rushing hastily forward, Jenny guessed that they were following their team’s protocols, or at least, the orders of their leader. Blasters were at the ready. They were not jumping and firing at every little sound or flicker of light, and they stayed moderately quiet and in a formation.

The good-looking man, Benni, was showing excellent military stealth and command skills, in Jenny's opinion. He kept a bit ahead of Hellen and wisely remained silent as much as possible. Instead of speaking, Benni used hand gestures to communicate to Hellen, telling her when to stop, when to advance and where she should be going in relation to his position. Jenny was definitely giving him high marks. He was certainly well able to lead. His strategic wisdom and militaristic method made Jenny wonder if Benni had once been a soldier. He definitely screamed it as far as she was concerned, which actually worried her.

Before hiding in wait for them, Jenny and her father had set a trap for them in the Gallifrey exhibit. It was a plan that hinged too much on the element of surprise in Jenny’s opinion. If something went wrong with it, or this good-looking man was smart enough to see it coming, she would have to come up with a Plan B on her own. Her father was on the other side of the station, taking care of the Muscle Brothers, with another trap, so she wasn’t likely to get back up from him anytime soon, not that she really wanted it from him at the moment.

The pair of thieves drew closer to the Gallifrey exhibit when all of a sudden Hellen spoke up without permission. “See anything yet, Benni?” Hellen hissed loudly.

Jenny mentally scolded the red haired young woman.   
  
 _Talking when you are in a situation where an enemy likely is or could be nearby is very, very bad. This definitely isn't one of the times to be brash and quick on one’s feet. Hellen might as well have yelled at the top of her lungs, ‘Here we are, come and get us!’_  
  
Jenny got a feeling that Benni agreed. He was giving her a silencing glare. Placed a finger over his lips, he silently shushed Hellen. Jenny would have done the same if the woman had been in her military squad back on Messaline. Only an idiot would make a noise now.

“Jenny, come in!” a voice crackled from her pants pocket. It was her father’s voice.

Jenny jumped before quickly snatching the communicator fromher pocket. She hit the mute on it and cursed at herself for forgetting to set it sooner.

_Talk about idiot_ , Jenny thought, scolding herself.

Once silent, she slipped back into the display indent as far as she could go. She squatted down, making herself as small as possible. There she waited, listening for the sound of footsteps approaching, for the humming sounds of charging blaster, or for the sound of blaster fire. They never came. After waiting a few moments longer and not hearing anything, Jenny blindly started adjusting the volume on the communicator.

She clicked the ‘talk’ button and spoke softly into it. “I read you, Doctor,” she said softly. “Over.” She released the ‘talk’ button and listened.

“Over what?” her father asked innocently through a slight crackle of static, but Jenny swore she could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

Jenny wanted to say something rude in response. She wanted to lecture him about not acting childish when in a dangerous situation, but at the same time she decided she preferred it. After all, at least he hadn’t turned on her with all the fires of Hell as he had done in the cleaning closet. Just thinking about what happened almost an hour ago, made a cold shutter roll over her shoulders and her knees grew weak. Jenny had to bit her lip and once again tightened her grip around the sonic screwdriver to stop herself from completely losing it. She tried to focus her mind on the present. Instead of being rude, Jenny did what she’d done in the Gallifrey exhibit and pretended to enjoy his humour, as if nothing was wrong.

Jenny forced a smile to her voice when she pressed down hard on the ‘talk’ button and said, “Ha ah ha! Very funny, Doctor.” She released the 'talk' button again.

There was a smile to his tone when he answered. “Isn’t though,” he said happily. “So where are you at?”

She pressed down on the ‘talk’ button and answered, “Just a second. Let me double check.” Releasing the button again, Jenny cautiously headed back towards the mouth of the display indent. She peered around the edge, looking for Hellen and Benni. When she spotted them, she pressed down on the ‘talk’ button and softly replied, “It looks like we’re about to enter the Gallifrey exhibit. Benni, I mean, the younger man…”

“Benni is it now?” her father said, cutting into her report of the situation. His teasing tone was back, but mixed with a slightly serious tone as well.

Jenny sighed. “It’s not like that. I just heard the red haired woman call him that. That’s it.”

“Better be,” her father complained with a grumble.

The seriousness of his voice slowly grew sharper. It sounded very much like the angry tone he had used in the closet. Just listening to the way it coloured his words, made Jenny pause in thought. But this time she wasn’t so much afraid of the coldness or sharpness of his tone, but curious about it. This time she hadn't been ranting or complaining, so why was he upset?

“Cause, I’m sure he could do much worse than Neal,” her father said coldly.

Perhaps she was reading too much into his words and the tone of his voice, but something about them tugged at her mind. For the first time since they’d left the cleaning closet to pull their traps together, Jenny analyzed the threatening outburst.

_He got upset, but was it perhaps not because of me? I wonder if I was not the focus of his anger and fury. Could there be other reasons besides my insistance about the artefacts.... did something else push him to that point of untamed fury? He had been... is hurt from the fountain accident... and he most likely was in pain and slightly disorientated from just waking up from being completely unconscious... maybe even near death, speaking of which I wonder..._

“Jenny?” her father’s voice said a bit louder over the communicator, pulling her attention away from her thoughts.

Pushing down on the 'talk' button, Jenny simply said, “I know.” She licked her lips as a renewed desire to talk with him filled her, but she stopped short of saying anything about her thoughts. They were in a dangerous situation right now. Her training told her this wasn't the time or the place for discussing them. It was better to wait until this was all over and there was time to talk. Instead, she asked, “So where are you at?”

oOo

The Doctor glanced over the speaker end of the communicator as it balanced precariously between his left ear and shoulder. He could just see two towering shadows lumbering around the curve of the hallway. He quickly returned his gaze to the innards of the computer panel he was currently rewiring. Tons of red, green, and blue-coated wires bulged out of the opening. The Doctor tugged at few bundles of wires as he shoved the rest back inside.

“Near one of the airlocks on the docking side of the station,” he muttered through the communicator. “And it looks like I’m about to get some company from those two Muscle Brothers you mentioned.”

A few sparks flew from the wires in his hands as he rerouted energy from the docking doors on this level and to the emergency systems. He smiled as he connected the wires to a series of microprocessors inside the computer before him. A second later, the processors lit up and a soft hum could be heard. He’s rewiring had worked.

Jenny’s voice crackled over the communicator, pulling his attention back to her, “Are you going to be all right dealing with them?”

“Yeah, fine,” the Doctor answered, while repeating what he’d done with another three bundles of wires. “I’ve dealt with worse in my time.”

“Really?” Jenny’s voice crackled over the communicator. She sounded less than convinced.

“Yeah!” the Doctor said more confidently before quietly mumbling to himself. “Well, close enough.”

“Doctor?” Jenny said questioningly.

“Look, I’ll be fine. You just follow the plan. The sprinkler system and the Gallifrey exhibit have been prepared. Once you activate the fire protocols, everything else should take care of itself. Just remember what I said about the sonic screwdriver. Use setting 245 for the emergency computer panel next to the exhibit door, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” Jenny replied with a sigh.

“Contact me when you’ve contained your two, and try not to lose the sonic screwdriver in the process. I just finished rebuilding it after the last person I lent it to lost it,” the Doctor said exasperatedly. He paused and closed the face plate of the computer panel in front of him. Once the face plate clicked into place, he pressed a series of four buttons on it and suddenly the space between him and the area in front of the inner airlock door of ‘Airlock D-744’ crackled with a blue energy barrier. “And take care of yourself, Jenny.”

“You too,” Jenny replied, and then she paused, only the open channel of static filled the void between them.

The Doctor waited a moment thinking something was wrong. “Jenny?” he said questioningly.

“Take care, D…” she said, pausing for only a few second. “Just take care.” Then the communicator went silent again.   
  
The Doctor could feel that Jenny was leaving something out and he dared to hope it was a fatherly reference. He couldn’t be sure, but the hesitance and her resistance to just leave it, filled the Doctor with renewed hope.

“Could be good sign,” the Doctor said to himself, clapping his hands together. “Well, only way I’ll find out is to meet her back at the TARDIS. Shouldn’t be too hard if I can just convince these two brutes to put down their weapons and surrender to me. Yeah, shouldn’t be too hard at all, easy peasy I’ll bet!"

It was then that the sources of the two towering shadows appeared and were the Muscle Brothers ever properly named. They were huge; at least seven inches taller than the Doctor, with more bulging muscles than he had ever seen on a human before. His brown eyes widened as he took in their Herculean-like stature with shoulder-length hair: one blond and the other sandy-blond.

“Oh,” the Doctor said slightly nervous as he ran one hand through his messy brown hair. “Maybe... I spoke a little too soon.”

Both Herculean men held even bigger, chunkier-looking blasters than Ulean, and they definitely looked far more fit and able. In fact, the Doctor wondered if they grew up in a fitness centre, probably fed on nothing but steroids. He didn’t laugh at his joke. Instead, the Doctor swallowed a lump forming in his throat and moved away from the computer panel and towards the centre of hallway on his side of the blue energy barrier. He stood straight and tall before the two muscle-bound brothers, not daring to outwardly show the uneasiness in his mind.

“Hello!” he cheerfully greeted as the two Herculean men saw him. “I’m the Doctor and…”

They aimed their blasters at him and opened fire.

oOo

Benni stood stalk-still in front of the arching doorway, staring wide-eyed at the brightly lit white exhibit within. A small smile tugged at his lips. The urge to chuckle filled him. Before him lay a replicate of part of a world he had only read about in  _The Sector’s_ files and in stories his father had told him when he was very, very young. But this was no fairytale or classified report. This room and its holographic occupants were far more real. Just seeing them here meant he was clearly right about his assumptions concerning the two intruders. They knew much more about the Time Lords, and quite possibly, were Time Lords themselves.

_I’ll have to speak with them… to examine them myself to be sure. Two hearts… if the girl and the man have two hearts and few a few other aspects mentioned in the files, then I have found myself some Time Lords._

A gleeful chuckle fell from Benin’s lips as he entered the world of white marble and stone. His wide eyes took in everything they could, but when he was a few steps past the doorway, he stopped again. Despite his eagerness to investigate further, his training told him to still move with caution. He took a few deep breaths, calming his racing mind and starting to examine the room for potential traps and hiding places.

There was none as far as Benni could tell. Unlike the other enclosed rooms and crisscrossing hallways, this enclosed exhibit was brightly lit from corner to corner and side to side. It held no overhangs, obscuring corners, or other hiding place, and why should there be in a replicate of one of the most enlightened worlds to have ever existed in the universe? The thrumming urge to rashly return to his investigation of the room pounded in his head and heart, but he once again refrained and gave his so-called teammate a glance instead.

Benni turned back towards the doorway. He could just see the right side of Hellen, peaking around the right edge of the arching doorway. Her green eyes were focused on the small computer panel just outside the doorway. She was fooling with it, trying to decode the programming and figure out what the content of the room was suppose to be. Even though Benni already knew this to be a replicate of a place on Gallifrey, he decided not to tell her for it might raise her suspicion about him, and he didn’t want to go through that again.

Turning around completely, he raised an eyebrow in her direction. “What have you found out, babe?” Benni asked.

“Only what Ugly Ulean told us,” Hellen replied, not raising her gaze from her tinkering on the computer panel. “This exhibit is supposed to contain a replicate of some sort of meeting place or intellectual centre on a planet known as Gallifrey.”

“Gallifrey…” Benni repeated in a soft voice. His gaze turned from Hellen and once more skimmed over the white room, until he was looking at the holographic beings. They stood and moved in the area of the room that surrounded a towering tree with silver leaves. “The legendary planet,” he breathed as he once more started across the expansive and shiny marble floor towards the area of holographic activity.

_They must be Time Lords. They wear the robes and the high collars just like in the reports and stories. And just look at them! All tall, all regal, and all knowing. They have to be the masters of time._

A puff of true joy flew past Benni's lips. “This must be the home of the Time Lords,” he stated.

“Strange,” Hellen said suddenly from behind Benni.

Benni’s attention was pulled immediately back towards her. “Sorry?” he asked as one of his dark eyebrows crept up his forehead. “What’s strange?”

“The whole thing really,” she answered before making a thoughtful humming sound. After a moment, she started to speak again, “It’s strange that a museum about the history of the universe would house such rubbish fairytale beings.”

Benni saw Hellen cock her head to the right, moving her lips in and out as if thinking very deeply. Then her gaze shifted at him and narrowed before she shrugged. “I suppose, maybe, housing these fairytale beings here is to show that… maybe legends even existed way back when… in the dark days.”

He snapped around in her direction again, raising his other eyebrow. “Rubbish fairytale beings? Dark days?” he asked before crossing his arms over his chest. “What precisely are you suggesting, Hellen?”

Hellen winked playfully at Benni. “Oh, you know, like Ugly Ulean said about them being from fairytales. Even I know that,” she replied with a giggle and a quick roll of her green eyes. A moment later she mostly disappeared around the corner to continue her tinkering.

Benni understood Hellen's reference to the fairytales, and in fact, he expected it from a people who had long ago stopped believing in legendary beings, like the Time Lords and the Daleks. Her comment, however, about the centuries before this time as ‘dark days’ was what upset him. He’d grown up in those supposed dark days: a child of the 51st Century. To him, that time was far from dark or primitive. In fact, in comparison to the present, Benni thought the 51 st Century was a much more enlightened time, filled with real adventures and enthralling discoveries. He’d have loved to set Hellen straight, but Benni knew better than to argue with the narrow-minded humans of the year one billion and 300 hundred.

_Hard to imagine humans survived this long without being able to think outside of the box of possibility. No one on this team would even imagine half the stuff I’ve seen in my travels. Complete idiots the lot of them._

Benni then turned away and started to examine the holographic forms of the Time Lords more closely. He had barely started taking note of the finer details of their strange robe-like clothing, when he heard a loud confirmation beep from the doorway. He already knew it was Hellen that caused it. Once again, she was making loud, unnecessary noises, which only made him want to yell at her further for her stupidity.  
  
 _Doesn't she realise that the intruders might still be nearby?_

He turned ready to, as politely as he could, tell her to stop her tinkering and was immediately greeted by a leering Hellen, who was leaning in the doorway. A huge, loop-sided grin was spread over her face.

“So,” she said, taking a few purposeful steps into the exhibit area and placing her hands on her narrow hips. Hellen gazed left then right before snapping her sights back towards him with a raised eyebrow. “Still no intruders I see.”

Benni forced a huge smile on his face. “Oh, very, very true, babe.” He refrained from moving back from her predatory approach. He’d seen this before from Hellen when she was about to suggest something of the sexual nature. “But it doesn’t mean danger can’t be close at hand,” he pointed out.

Hellen giggled mischievously, slinking towards him. “Makes it all the more exciting as well as pleasurable then.”

Benni mentally sighed and lowered his blaster. “I suppose, but I think…”

“Ah hah ah, remember I’m the smart one and you’re just the sexy one,” Hellen said, waving her left pointer finger in front of her. “So you don’t think and I….” She never finished that sentence as she let out a fearful, high-pitched scream just as her legs suddenly flew out from under her. With a very loud thud, Hellen crashed to the hard marble floor.

Benni’s eye widened in surprise at the sight, and for once, since he’d started his covert mission, he couldn’t repress the urge to laugh. He doubled over as he let out a roar of laughter.

_Oh, Hellen, Hellen, you are definitely not as smart as you think, and it seems you are also very, very klutzy. Tsk, tsk, poor little Hellen. You’re definitely an example of humanities ineptness._

Benni was laughing so hard at Hellen’s ungraceful fall that he almost missed the subtle movement just outside the Gallifrey exhibit’s arching doorway. A flash of long blonde hair luckily grabbed his attention. His gaze flew towards the doorway just as he heard a whimper from Hellen.

In the doorway stood a young girl, who was about Hellen’s height, with her long blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She was dressed in a green T-shirt and tight black pants.She was smiling at him and not in a good way. Her smile slowly grew bigger as she lifted her right hand and waved her fingers mockingly at him.

Immediately, alarms went off in Benni’s head. He reached for his blaster instinctively, but it was too late. A moment before he could gain aim, the doorway’s fire shield slide down between the blonde girl and them, trapping Hellen and him inside the enclosed exhibit.

“It was a trap,” Benni said simply as his mouth fell open.

From the floor, Hellen groaned, gazing up at him confused, “What is a trap? What are you talking about, Benni-babe?”   
  
Benni's wide eyes shifted towards her. She was gazing at her fingers, which were covered in a sticky, yellowish substance. “Hey, who puts soap on a marble floor? That’s just stupid.”

Benni's shoulders sagged before he sighed, “Very, very stupid.”

_To be continued…_


	13. Roadblocks

The bright blue energy barrier crackled loudly between the Doctor and the Muscle Brothers. A series of blinding blue flashes lit the dark gray metal walls of the corridor. The Doctor did not cringe back from the shocking display, but simply squinted at it. He wasn’t impressed in the least, just stared at the circular fluctuations radiate across the barrier. They were rippling waves of blue and white that echoed from a single point where a blaster’s beam had struck.

Blinking a few times to clear his vision, the Doctor’s intense gaze shifted from that disturbance and towards the two Herculean-like men on the other side. They had tried to shoot him... again.

He crossed his arms over his chest and drew in a deep breath. “Look, I know this might be hard for you two to grasp,” the Doctor said slowly, “but I wasn’t joking the last nineteen times you tried to shoot me.” He gestured with both hands towards the energy barrier. “This barrier... the blue flickering light show you seem quite happy to ignore... it is like a shield. Okay? And like a shield, it reflects all your shots. They will not…”

They weren’t listening to him. The blond Hercules took aim with his blaster and fired it. A blood red beam bloomed in the blaster’s mouth, pulsating before ushering forth towards the Doctor. Just like the nineteen times before, the beam struck the blue energy barrier at a single point, causing blinding blue flashes to light the dark grey hallway and fluctuations to cascade across the barrier. But the beam didn’t cross through the energy barrier. Instead, it ricocheted back towards the Muscle Brothers, striking the metal wall behind them, but neither man appeared phased by it.

“It ain’t working, Kytte,” the sandy-blond haired Hercules said, sounding confused. He slightly lowered the huge, chunky blaster in his grasp and looked towards the blond Hercules, who was snarling, beside him.

Kytte just growled and angrily stomped up to the energy barrier. His blue eyes narrowed on it as if his glare alone would remove the blue flickering barrier between him and the Doctor. Then he lower his huge blaster, letting it dangle from a thick black strap over his broad shoulder. “Keep an eye on him, Lytte,” Kytte ordered his brother. “I’m going to check this blue flickering thing.”

Lytte immediately complied, raising his blaster and directing it at the Doctor. “Yes, Brother.”

As Kytte started to reach out, the Doctor cut in, “I wouldn’t if I were you. It’s….”

Kytte’s hands connected with the blue energy barrier and immediately searing white bolts pulsed up his arms and throughout his entire body, until he started to glow the same bright blue colour as the barrier. His mouth fell open and he gave an agonized scream. The Doctor cringed at the horrific sight, but there was nothing he could do for Kytte. The Doctor was well aware that the voltage of the barrier shouldn’t kill him, but the pain must have been unimaginable.

After several seconds of distressed shrieking, Kytte finally pulled his hands free of the energy barrier. The Doctor watched as the blond Hercules whimpered in pain, limping his way back to his brother. A few curses tumbled from Kytte’s tightly drawn lips while he cradled his injuries.

Lytte immediately turned his full attention back to Kytte, and the Doctor saw real concern in Lytte’s blue eyes. “Are you okay, Brother?”

Instantly, Kytte clutched his red-looking hands his fists and glared at Lytte. “How dare you! Of course, I’m fine!” Kytte growled, and then he started to lift his blaster. He hissed in pain as the uneven and sharp edges of the blaster pressed into the burns on his hands. “It… it was nothing. Don’t... don’t forget which of us is older and stronger!”

Lytte nodded enthusiastically with a dopey smile on his face, “Oh, of course, you are, Big Brother. Stronger and far smarter. We’d never got this great job with Rez, if it ain’t for your…”

At that moment, the communicator in the Doctor’s left jacket pocket crackled, pulling his attention away from the Muscle Brothers. He reached for it just as he heard Jenny’s voice come over it. “Doctor, do you read me?”

The Doctor smiled at hearing Jenny’s voice once again, but quickly the smile vanished when he noticed Kytte and Lytte were staring at him. “Ahhhhuh... you two don’t mind me,” the Doctor said, slowly backing away from the blue energy barrier. “I just need to take this. You know family thing. Ah… You two just continue… with whatever it is... you are doing. I’ll still be here when you want to surrender.” He flashed them a huge smile before turning away.

Pressing down on the communicator’s ‘talk’ button, the Doctor spoke. “I read you, Jenny.” He released it and listened for Jenny’s reply.

“I’ve just managed to trap my two in the Gallifrey exhibit,” Jenny answered over the communicator.

"Molto Bene!” the Doctor exclaimed with a huge grin as he began to pace. “Jenny you are fantastic! Brilliant, in fact!” He chuckled loudly and turned on his heel to pace across to the other side of the hallway. “You wanted them brought to justice, there you go! The Intergalactic Patrol will be responding to the fire alarm within the next few hours. Cause, as you said, no one’s going let anything happen to these valuable collections… particularly they’re aren’t going to allow them to be burned up, AND because you're father is sooo very clever, an absolute genius, in fact, the sprinkler system should... now activa…”

 

Jenny gave a very loud shriek, cutting him off in mid-sentence. The sound of rushing water soon drowned her out her screams.

The Doctor stopped on the spot and winced. “… should now activate. Oops.”

“You could have warned me!” Jenny yelled over the communicator. “This entire section’s sprinkler system is going off!” There was a garbled array of cursing from Jenny and the sound of wet, running footsteps.

“Well, I… I was completely sure how the system worked,” the Doctor confessed, running his left hand through his hair, “Could have gone either way, really. One exhibit, one section… even possibly the entire station.”

As he spoke to Jenny, his gaze flickered back towards the Muscle Brothers. He wasn’t expecting to see them doing anything besides watching him with intense curiosity. After all, he had them trapped, and it wasn’t as if they could do much more than shoot randomly at the energy barrier. But they weren’t just standing there staring at him, at least not both of them. Lytte still stood near the centre of the energy barrier on the Muscle Brothers’ side with his huge blaster aimed directly at the Doctor. Kytte, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.

The Doctor spun completely around to face the bright blue energy barrier and quickly skimmed the area on the other side of it. He searched for the blond Hercules, and after a few seconds, found Kytte near the mouth of ‘Airlock D-744.’ Kytte appeared to be gazing at the inner wall where a concealed computer panel for the airlock should be. A rush of concern filled the Doctor.

_What is that thick-headed human up to? No, it can’t be... he couldn’t... he wouldn’t be so stupid as to mess with that computer, would he?_

Jenny’s voice over the communicator pulled him from his thoughts. “Just to be sure, that concoction you added to the sprinklers normal fire extinguishing compound, it won’t… it won’t do anything to me, will it?”

The Doctor gazed back at the communicator, shaking his head, and then he pressed the ‘talk’ button. “No. It only interacts with high isometric energy-based electronic …” he started to say when he heard the creak of metal. His gaze quickly snapped back towards Kytte, who was now holding the panel covering from a wall-mounted computer. The blond Hercules tossed it to the ground behind him with a bang before he started to tug at the innards.

“Ah, I’ve got to go, Jenny,” he said hurriedly as he rushed back towards the blue energy barrier. “Just remember to use setting 19966 on the transmat platform, okay?”

“19966,” Jenny answered, “Yes, I got it, sir.”

“I’ll meet you back at the TARDIS,” he said into the communicator. “Bye.” Then the Doctor returned communicator to his pocket and spoke directly to Kytte. “Ah, what are you doing?” Even as he asked, the Doctor peered closely at the place where Kytte’s hands vanished, presumably inside the wall-mounted computer. No matter how the Doctor craned his neck or squinted, he couldn’t see what Kytte was doing. The panel was on the inner area of the airlock, just out of the Doctor’s line-of-sight. “I don’t think you should...”

Kytte raised his gaze from pulling out wires to give the Doctor a wicked look. “What? Scared are you, little man?”

“Only for you,” the Doctor said pointedly. “Now whatever you are planning….”

Kytte chuckled excessively loud as he swaggered towards the Doctor. There was a devious smirk on his lips and a dark twinkle in his blue eyes. “You better be,” Kytte said coldly as he gripped his huge, chunky blaster. Kytte lifted it up to eye level, aiming it at the Doctor. “You better be worried about me a lot, little man. Once we get through the blue electricity... shield... thing you made, you’ll suffer.”

Instantly, Lytte snapped an alarmed look at Kytte and quickly moved to his brother’s side. “But... but Benni said….”

“Shut up!” Kytte shouted, glaring at his brother.

Lytte stopped on the spot and immediately did as he was told, shutting his mouth.

Kytte returned his attention to the Doctor. “Even if Rez wants you alive that doesn’t mean you can’t be a bit damaged. As Ulean likes to say… ‘Damaged goods are still good.’”

The Doctor sighed. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you, but…”

Kytte didn’t wait for the Doctor to finish. He just fired his blaster.

The Doctor made an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. For him, it was yet another stupid gesture by this blond Hercules, and in that moment of doubt, the Doctor narrowly missed the streaming, blood red beam flying straight at the blue energy barrier, and for once, passing straight through it too.

Later, the Doctor would wonder whether the barrier had been weakened from all the firing and Kytte touching it or from what Jenny had done with the security system, or if chance and fate were working against him, but for the moment he was unbelievably thankful that Kytte’s aim had been slightly off. The Doctor only felt the searing heat of the blood red beam whizzing by his left ear. He jumped away from the energy barrier and pressed himself up against right wall of the metallic hallway. His eyes were wide, a slight tremor raking over his body. That had been too close for comfort.

Kytte smugly declared, “Not too safe, are you, little man?!”

The Doctor swallowed, shaking his head. Then he gave Kytte and Lytte a warning glower through the blue energy barrier.

Lytte seemed slightly taken back by the Doctor’s threatening glare and averted his gaze. Kytte, on the other hand, just glared back, baring his teeth in a snarl.

Cautiously, the Doctor returned to the centre of the hallway on his side of the blue energy barrier and crossed his arms over his chest. He just shrugged. “Lucky shot. That’s all. A one in a million chance,” the Doctor explained. “It won’t happen again.”

_I hope,_  the Doctor added in thought, resisting the urge to swallow the lump in his throat.

Kytte snorted and gave the Doctor a sinister smirk in return.

oOo

Benni’s left hand squeezed the mouth end of his blaster as his right hand squeezed one of the protective, raised railings that lined the edge of the transmat pad. He drew in a heated breath as he mumbled incoherent words to the expansive, white Gallifrey exhibit. The words wouldn’t mean much to anyone listening, even Hellen who knelt on the other side of the room next to the sealed doorway.

For all Benni was muttering was the word, ‘Philosophy.’

Benni disliked philosophy. Well, that wasn’t completely true. He just couldn’t understand how someone could or would base all his decisions and actions on uncertainty and random thoughts. The twisting paradoxical lines always sounded utterly ridiculous. He preferred fact to the maybes and perhaps of philosophy, which was probably why he never understood his mother’s love obsession with it.

She thrived on philosophy. He remembered the very few wasteful trips they had been able to afford to  _The Library_  before it was shutdown and how many drawn-out, endless hours she’d spent in the complex for philosophy and metaphysic. In fact, philosophy was the only subject his mother knew, which was why his home schooling by her had been less than adequate. Every subject and lesson she would shovel full of silly philosophical terms and analysis. Benni recalled her saying on more than one occasion that philosophy was the foundation of life. She said it could explain anything. Benni never believed it.

Philosophy was the one thing he didn’t want to learn, and so during his free time, he slipped away from the tiny and cramped living space he and his mother shared in the Melgosis refugee camp to do some exploring and to learn other skills and pieces of knowledge. But still, years later, some of his mother’s teachings on philosophy remained, despite Benni’s best effort to forget them. One analogy, in particularly, tugged at his fatigued mind currently. It was an excerpt from some early 40th Century human’s work:

**_The world is paper and glass._ **

**_Not delicate but not indestructible either._ **

**_And we are all but mice trapped within going round and around and around._ **

Benni sighed, gazing up from his hunched position on the transmat pad. His gaze swept across the expansive white room and then glided up over the arching glass ceiling. “Who knew philosophy would be so shockingly accurate,” he softly grumbled to himself.

For trapped is exactly what Benni was at the moment. Locked within a museum exhibit, unable to escape, and walking around and around the edge of the multi-sided room, until a potential plan came to mind. Nothing had come yet, and he was starting to doubt any would.

Looking across expansive room, he couldn’t help but spot the splatter of large yellow puddles of goo and water, and the enormous amount of yellowish soap bubbles covered them and almost every other surface. It was a virtual landmine. One wrong step across the open space would send the walker crashing to the floor quite ungracefully and painfully. Through trial and error, Benni had found the places along the edge of the wall that were safe for exploring the exhibit.

_So that’s how mad it has become. I can’t even move about my prison. A walking landmine of slippery traps and every possible escape route cut off. I’m trapped!_

A bang from the sealed doorway pulled his attention to the kneeled form of Hellen beside it. Benni sighed as his head drooped, resting against the black screen of the transmat pad.

_Worse than that, I’m trapped with Hellen._

Trying to find something to distract himself, Benni reviewed the escape routes again. He’d been doing this whenever he started to feel on the verge of giving up. It helped to a point.

_All right, the most obvious escape route would have been the sealed main doorway, which a protective fire shield now covers_. _Right, just lovely. Now I’m all for the fire shield when its keeping people out and a fire in, but we’re the ones trapped inside, which means the only way out would to input the proper access codes... unfortunately, only the Intergalactic Patrol has those. That’s just a one-way ticket to a forced labour camp, and I’m certainly not going to waste away in one of those. A refugee camp was bad enough, thank you very much!_

His grip on both his blaster and the railing tightened for a moment. Benni drew in a breath to calm his rising temper. He knew better then to lose himself to his anger. He needed a level head if he was going to find a solution. Lifting his head, he gazed down at the wall-mounted computer before.

_Right, on to the next obvious escape room: the transmat pad. Now I knew before our current accommodations that Hellen had more or less deactivated it by implanting a virus into the station’s transmat system. A very nice way of limiting the intruders’ movements. A great plan! Glad I implanted the suggestion into Hellen’s mind and kept her along so she could reactivate it if I needed the transmat pad back, but unfortunately now, whatever the blonde haired girl added to the sprinkler system has completely shorted this transmat pad’s circuits._

Benni used the butt of his gun to strike the key pad below the black screen out of frustration. Over the last twenty or so minutes, he tried to get the transmat pad operational, but all attempts had been unsuccessful. It didn’t even make an attempt to activate when touched.

Glancing at the large blaster gripped tightly in his left hand, Benni reminded himself that their weapons were in the same condition. They weren’t even charging. He wasn’t even sure why he still held the worthless piece of metal. With a frustrated sigh, he tossed it into the nearest yellowish puddle with a splash.

Then Benni turned on his heels and stepped off the transmat pad and carefully over the large puddle that now held his worthless blaster. Once on to non-slippery ground, he started to walk along the wall, while contemplating the situation.

_Two exits down, so what’s left? Certainly not my emergency one. Not anymore, also thanks to the blonde girl._

Benni didn’t hold back his anger as he slammed a fist into the side of the stone base of the Time Lord bust before him and gave an irate growl. His shoulders tensed, while his right hand coursed with momentarily distracting pain. But it couldn’t pull his attention from the uncomfortable, gnawing pain that was building up in the pit of his stomach, a mixture of anger and sadness.

_I’m so screwed now._

Muttering a few choice curses under his breath, Benni turned himself around and rested his back against the stout base of the bust of some long dead Time Lord. He drew in a few deep breaths in yet another attempt to calm his temper.

_Okay, okay. Look on the positive side of the coin, Benni. At least you’re alive and healthy, which means there’s still a chance. A chance that would be so much better if Lara was still operational._

Benni’s gaze slowly lowered to his hands, where the fingers on his right hand absent-mindedly danced over his covered left wrist. Hidden beneath the soaked black material of his fake uniform’s left sleeve was another casualty of the concoction in the sprinkler system. When he’d found it also affected by the sprinklers, Benni had been completely shocked. The Time Agency said nothing could affect it, short of a massive explosion. Even his Time Agency captain had said his wrist device would be his only constant ally as an agent until the day he died. Benni had believed it, and why not, it had always been true before.

But now Benni found himself without it. It was like losing an arm to Benni.

_Sure, Lara was just some Time Agency device, but I’d grown accustom to it... trusted it to always get me out of tougher situations than this, and more importantly, without it I have no way to get back to my cloaked ship. I’m stranded in this century. This is bad. This is very, very bad._

oOo

Jenny’s black boots pounded into the wet carpet of the hallway. She wasn’t wasting time. A distinct squelching sound echoed with each of her hurried steps. Her long blonde ponytail remained plastered across the back of her neck and a few loose strained stuck to the sides of her face. She was completely soaked from head to toe, and she felt completely gross. The only things Jenny was grateful for was that the sprinklers had stopped raining down upon her and that the strange soapy compound mixed in the water had not done anything to her skin or clinging clothing.

She momentarily stopped at a bend in the hallway, brushing the sobbing bangs off her face. Her gaze snapped to the left side of the hallway and then the right, but she saw nothing except artefacts and darkened display indents. She drew in several hurried breaths before taking off again.

Jenny was determined to find a transmat pad, but she hadn’t seen any. Well, she hadn’t seen any that were working. So far, all transmit pads in this section appeared burned out due the mixture from the sprinklers drenching them. Every keypad refused to turn on, some even sparked when she touched them, as if they about to overload. It was all thanks to her father’s addition to the sprinklers.

“Thanks a lot,” Jenny grumbled before a new arching doorway appeared before her. Immediately, she recognized it as yet another junction point room and she continued forward. Inside Jenny came to a sudden halt and quickly noticed one big difference between this place and everywhere else she’d been after the sprinklers went off. There was no sign that the sprinklers had gone off in this room. “That’s gotta be a good sign.” She let her gaze skim across the expansive room, until it fell upon a metallic, raised platform against the farthest wall. “Yes!”

Jenny sprinted up to it and climbed on. A slight tremor of fear coursed through her as she approached the screen and keypad. She heavily tapped a few times on the keys, and after the briefest of breathless moments, the screen was aglow.

“Molto Bene!” Jenny exclaimed, clapping her hands together as a huge smile spread across her face. However, as her blue eyes took in the content of the screen, her smile fell.

Instead of the usual brightly lit welcome introducing the Museum of Lost History, there was an animated cartoon woman. She was short with spiky red hair and was waving one large, cartoon-like finger as if to say ‘naughty, naughty.’ Beside her animated form were two bolded words, “Access Denied!”

“The red haired thief’s work, no doubt,” Jenny sighed, sounding exasperated.

She wasn’t surprised to see the message, because her father had off-handily mentioned to her that the thieves had hacked the transmat system after checking to see if it was a viable escape route.

_No doubt, they did it to keep us from moving freely around the station. That’s what I’d do if I was them, controlling your enemy’s options and closing in on them, and according to Dad, it would take the best security code crackers of the Shadow Proclamation or Intergalactic Patrol several days to break it_. _But of course, he would have me believe he could do it mere seconds._

Jenny recalled the cheeky, over-confident grin he’d flashed her as he twirled the sonic screwdriver between his right middle and pointer fingers. He had sounded so cocky when he said he had a magic key that could crack any code or lock.

Placing her hand over the pocket where the sonic screwdriver was located, Jenny considered his words. “I guess he’s right. The sonic screwdriver is kind of like a magic key, considering all the things it has been able to do,” she said with a partial smile on his face. “And that’s definitely the first time I think I knew I loved that little metal tube. Definitely a useful tool. Extremely useful! Now I see why Da...” She stopped short of referring to him in fatherly reference. She wasn’t ready to think of him as anything other than the Doctor, even though part of her said differently.

Instead, she reminded herself why he’d given her the sonic screwdriver. It was to activate the emergency system for the sprinklers and fire shield, and to access the transmat system to reactive a platform to get back to the TARDIS.

Jenny reached into her left pants pocket to retrieve the sonic screwdriver, but that’s as far as her hand could go. The long metal tube was wedged tightly in the soaked pants pocket. She sighed as she tried to pry the pocket open, but it seemed that her pants had shrunk and the strange yellowish sticky goo had more or less glued it shut. After a bit of tugging and jiggling of the sonic screwdriver inside the black pants pocket, the small metal tube with the blue tip finally pulled free from its confines.

“At last,” Jenny said, raising it to eye level. That is when she noticed that the sticky, yellowish goo smeared over the head of sonic screwdriver. She used the edge of her green shirt to wipe it off, and for a moment, Jenny feared that her father’s concoction might have affected the sonic screwdriver too. But when she started to adjust the setting and it started to hum, she let go of that fear. “Setting... 1... 99... 66.” A soft beep confirmed the setting and then Jenny pointed it at the keyboard and activated it.

The wall-mounted screen flickered a few times before the image on it jump between the annoying animated red head and a series of green numbers, running vertically down the screen. The image on the screen, at first, slowly jumped between the animated red head and the series of numbers, almost as if the computer was resisting the sonic screwdriver’s commands. Back and forth, the images continued with the rapid pace of jumping and flickering steadily increasing, until soon only the display of the numbers was visible. The numbers soon spread over the entire screen, filling it with racing green numerals. Then all of a sudden, the screen went completely blank.

Jenny blinked and quickly pulled the sonic screwdriver back. She tapped the keypad, nothing happened.

“Oh, oh,” Jenny groaned before looking at the tip of the sonic screwdriver in fear.

_To be continued…_


	14. From Trouble to Danger

_Everything ends._

Those two gloomy and foreboding words burned in Benni’s mind. Even as he tried to side step another yellowish puddle, feeling the delicate resistant of bubbles underfoot before they burst, he could only hear those two words blaring in his ears. They reminded him of the groaning noise of the warning sirens he often heard every night, while he and his mum hid in the underground bomb shelters on his father’s home world:

_Tooooo ALL... Theeree IS... Annnnn END!_ _Tooooo ALL... Theeree IS... Annnnn END!_

His hand instinctively reached out before him to steady himself, to regain balance physically and mentally. Only after he had drawn in a few shuddering breaths did Benni look to see where his hand had landed. That’s when he met her lifeless eyes. She was beautiful and imposing. Her tall, slender stature perfectly captured in stone and her piled hair crowned with a delicately beaded, golden headdress. He found himself momentarily mesmerized by her seriously and stunningly carved face. Her delicate beauty shined with elegance and wisdom; she looked quite grand and invincible to him, but she hadn’t been, not in the end. A deep frown darkened Benni’s face further.

_Despite all the wisdom and power of time, even she had died... along with her whole planet, just like my father’s world... just like my father. Everything has its time and everything ends..._

Benni drew in a shallow breath again and his fingers once more found his covered left wrist where Lara’s lifeless leather covered form still clung.

_And it seems I’m destined for the same fate..._

Even as the defeatist words fell from his lips and he entertained thoughts of just taking a seat at the feet of this dead Lady of Time and allowing fate do as it wished, Benni scorned himself. If his gun had still been working, he’d have shot himself in the head for surrendering without provocation or at least trying to fight back.

“What am I thinking!” Benni yelled, backing away from the stone Time Lady.

_Am I dying? No. Am I without mind or body? NO! But still here I am giving in to uncertainty... when so many other things are still right. Here I am at the location where I need to pick up my cloaked ship, and I know the target is still on the station, so why am I so willing to just give up? Okay, maybe I’m... hopefully... temporally trapped, but that doesn’t mean it’s over and done. It can’t be!_

He looked up at the Lady of Time, and reaching his left hand towards her, he touched her smooth looking face of stone.

_I bet you didn’t just give up, Lady of Time. I bet you fought to your last breath, taking as many Daleks down with you... just like my father. You never surrendered to fate, and neither shall I._

Benni had just made up his mind when two loud bangs from across the room drew Benni’s attention. He turned slightly and saw Hellen kneeling in front of a gaping hole into the fake stonewall of the exhibit, just right of the dark gray fire shield covering the arching doorway. Hundreds of wires and other computer parts protruded out from the guts of the wall-mounted computer, which was on the other side of the wall. It was a sizable opening, but so much stuff poked out and so many internal components were visible that Benni doubted it would ever be possible to crawl through the wall to get out. Of course, he had no doubt that Hellen had a more technical escape plan in mind. She probably thought she could bypass the fire shield.

_Stupid! Utterly, utterly stupid_ , Benni thought.

Hellen’s cursing and the sound of sparking wires grew louder as he began walking towards her, following the curve the wall. She obviously wasn’t having much luck with her escape plan, and Benni couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as yet another verse of the 40th Century philosopher’s philosophical analogy came to mind.

**And while some mice prefer to enjoy the simple bits of cheese,**

**Enjoy the simple white walls and the foggy glass sky above them,**

**Others scratch and claw at it.**

**They are desperate to overcome the creator and escape the confines of their world of paper and glass.**

“You are definitely clawing to get out, stupid little Hellen,” Benni said softly to himself. “A foolish endeavour to say the least, definitely not something I’d ever consider... under normal circumstances, but...” Benni scrunched his brow. His right hand absent-mindedly returned to his left wrist. He once more thought of Lara and the fact it was no longer an option. “For once, dear little Hellen, I do not disagree with you. I too tire of paper and glass. And I will not let some outer force decide my fate.”

Benni’s grew deathly serious as he called out to her, “Transmat is definitely out, babe.”

Instead of turning towards him, Hellen rose to her feet and walked up to the sealed doorway. Benni’s left eyebrow rose in question as he watched her head raise and lower several times. He was about to inquire what she was doing when she suddenly said a series of curses and brutally kicked the huge metal fire shield several times.

“You stupid piece of technology. Open already!” she yelled.

“Trust me, Hellen, kicking it definitely isn’t the solution,” Benni told her.

Hellen spun around and glared at him. “Well, I have to try something or else we’re spending the next 20 solar cycles on some backwatered penal colony or concentration camp.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Are you sure the code I gave you for the transmat still isn’t working?”

Her voice had a sharp, insinuating tone to it, which Benni really didn’t like, but instead of losing his already paper-thin temper, he simply gripped tightly to his left wrist and kept a straight face. “Nope. The computer isn’t even turning on to allow me to enter the code. The girl’s concoction in the sprinklers did a number on it too.”

“That’s impossible!” Hellen screamed, flinging her arms out before giving him a defiant glare.

Benni didn’t flinch at her voice still or her glare, but just shrugged in response. He didn’t trust his tongue at the moment not to say something incredibly rude, but the temptation was becoming almost too strong not to speak his mind.

Hellen growled and stomped back over to the gaping hole in the wall. “There’s no way anyone could do that.... that’s... that’s just impossible! It just isn’t...”

“Well, babe, someone has done it,” Benni pointed out rudely. “Best to accept it and move on.” He sighed, trying to calm the frustration pulsating in his mind, as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Benni was tiring of tiptoeing around his prison and around Hellen. He needed to take risk, if for nothing else to show himself that he still controlled his own fate. So drawing in a breath, Benni dared to move away from the wall and out on to the open marble floor. Carefully, stepping around yellowish puddles and clusters of huge soap bubbles, he made his way across the room slowly, only occasionally feeling his feet slip slightly.

“Because obviously it is possible... at least for someone smarter than you, babe,” Benni continued coldly. He didn’t even look at her as he crossed the room, but when he finally found a spot to stop near the centre of the floor, he turned to look at her. Hellen’s mouth was gapping open. He’d never seen this look on her face before. She looked utterly dumbfounded. For a good few moments, her mouth opened and closed like a fish, which amused Benni and made him smile. Then, all of a sudden, Hellen’s shoulders tensed and she just glared daggers at him.

_Oooh! If looks could kill,_  Benni thought to himself, trying to smother his smile.  _Even though, I’m right_ b _est not to upset the hired help, until she isn’t necessary anymore._

“Excuse me!” she exclaimed, stomping her foot, which was a bad idea since the floor beneath her feet was still somewhat slippery. She nearly fell over, just barely catching herself against the hole in the wall.

Benni barely stopped a snort of laughter.

“If you haven’t forgotten, Benni-babe, we’re trapped! Both of us!” she declared, straightening herself. She was failing miserable at trying to look dignified and professional in Benni’s opinion. “This exhibit is in lockdown with us inside. And we aren’t likely to escape before the authorities arrive. We’ve got no working blasters, according to you, we have no transmat, and so far, I can’t seem to bypass this bloody fire shield. Stupid safety guards! Who needs them!”

Benni sighed and was about to agree with Hellen. They were in a very sticky situation. There appeared to be no way out and those foreboding words…  _everything ends_ … still burned painfully in his mind. As his gaze dipped and he quickly tried to find another solution, Benni heard three high pitched, reparative soft beeps. His blue eyes widened. A cold shiver ran up his spine and his breath caught in his throat. He knew that sound.

_It can’t be. Lara?_

Immediately, Benni slapped his right hand over his left wrist to quiet the noise, but he still feared that Hellen had heard it too. None of the others knew what Lara really was, they thought she was just a strap of leather for protecting his wrist, but the noise could give Lara away. He glanced nervously at Hellen. Luckily, she didn’t seem to have heard it, returning to her work on the hole in the wall.

_Thank goodness for that. Thank goodness Hellen isn’t as smart as she pretends to be._

Benni snapped around before shakily pulling back his left sleeve to reveal the wrist device. His fingers trembled as they glided over the fine cracks and folds in the leather covering of Lara. His pointer finger slide along the leather material until it reached a small and worn black snap button on Lara, located along Benni’s inner left wrist. He undid the snap button with a flick of his right index finger and flipped open a hidden compartment under the leather covering. Inside was a compact keypad and view screen encircled by a series of dimly glowing purple lights.

_It’s working. Oh, Lara is working! But how? I thought... a few minutes ago it had been dead. I’m sure of it!_

Benni licked his lips, daring to hope, while hitting a few choice buttons on the wrist device, which should activate the tiny view screen. Another soft beep sounded from Lara, and a second later, the small digital read out said, ‘Reboot in progress.’ An absolute thrill ran over Benni when he realised his wrist device was returning to normal function.

_But why? Had it not been fully exposed to the sprinkler’s concoction, so that it was only temporarily malfunctioning or would all electronics and computers exposed return to normal function in time? Doesn’t really matter, because either way this means I can now complete my mission. This is my second chance, and I’m not going to waste anymore time. This mission is almost over. Time to simplify matters and start cleanup duty._

Benni forced a laugh, hoping to draw Hellen’s attention back to him. He had a plan, but he needed Hellen to be attentive to complete it. After all, he owed her for the last few terrible weeks. “You’re right, Hellen,” he said simply.

Hellen glanced over her shoulder at him, giving him a shrewd look. “What?” she asked before turning completely towards him.

“We are in a very bad situation. Defeated by the simplest, conventional items,” he explained, pointing to a soapy puddle in front of him, “like soap and sprinklers. Nothing you could handle with all the techie knowledge you’ve constantly brag about.”

Hellen huffed, rising to her feet and crossing her arms over her chest. “Well, your fighting techniques and knowledge of weaponry didn’t do us any good either,” she stated coldly.

“True,” he admitted, slowly unzipping his black security uniform and giving Hellen a leering look. This was all a part of his plan. Not only could he torture Hellen one last time, but also he could only gain access to his other secret weapon, which he hoped was returning to normal function as well, by getting rid of a bit of his soaking wet clothes.

“But... but,” Hellen stuttered before swallowing hard. Her gaze was following his jacket’s slow track downward. It appeared Benni was more than able to grab Hellen’s attention, which pleased him to no end. But for a moment, Hellen managed to pull her gaze away and fix Benni with a serious stare. She coughed, straightening her posture. “But what do you expect from the underhanded way of the Intergalactic...”

“No, it’s not them,” Benni interrupted, pulling the hem of his jacket out of his pants. Hellen’s gaze narrowed on him. He noticed a shimmer in her eyes, which he thought could be either sexual interest or growing irritation, both towards him, but Benni didn’t care, he had drawn her attention back on him.

“And before you suggest, it isn’t another group of thieves,” he added, undoing the buckle of his belt slowly.

“No?” Hellen inquired as her gaze bounced between his face and the lowering of his pants’ zipper. He noticed her voice had jumped an octave

“No, I don’t think so, but I intend to find out,” he said, pausing in his movements to meet her gaze with a smouldering stare.

“Well, instead of standing there stripping... and distracting me,” she said, licking her lips, “why not help me out. I’ll be more than happy to help you to twist the answers out them when we get out, Benni-babe.”

Benni just smirked. He had no intention of doing what she wanted, not anymore. “Nope,” he simply said, reaching behind him for his secret weapon. From a ‘hidden location’ on his person, Benni pulled out a small compact gun.

Hellen’s eyes widened. “Wait, you had another gun and you didn’t say anything?” Hellen said questioningly with a scoff to her tone. “You let me sit here for the last twenty minutes burning my hands and didn’t even mention you had another weapon?!”

Benni shrugged, giving Hellen a half smile and a wink. Then he turned his attention to the weapon and noticed the light, indicating the power level, was flashing. The gun seemed to be fully functional.

“Does it work?” Hellen asked, cocking her head to the side. “I mean, it wasn’t ruined by the soapy concoction in the sprinklers?”

Benni raised his gaze from the weapon, flashing a suggestive smile. “Let’s find out,” Benni answered.

Immediately Hellen’s face lit up with a huge grin. “Alright, let me just get out of the way of the doorway, and you can take a shot at the fire shield,” she told him, starting to shakily manoeuvre pass the sealed doorway.

Benni chuckled, and instantly, Hellen stopped in mid-step, nearly slipping again. She raised an eyebrow in his direction. “What? What’s so funny, Benni-babe?”

“And here I thought you were at least smarter than Ulean,” Benni smirked, tilting the compact gun back to release the safety lock. “I should really stop giving you so much credit, stupid little Hellen. Her mouth opened to protest, but he didn’t give her the time to argue. “This weapon won’t take out a door, not like that one,” he explained, before shifting the compact gun’s aim, so that it pointed at her.

“Then… what…,” Hellen started to ask. Her green eyes immediately widened with realisation. “Benni... babe? What... what are you doing? Stop fooling around… you’re scaring me.”

“Sorry, babe,” Benni said with a grin. “It’s nothing personal, well... not completely, but my bosses don’t like lose ends.”

“Bosses?” Hellen asked as she nearly slipped again, falling back against the fire shield to stop herself. When she’d stabilized footing, she gave Benni a pleading stare. “Look, I’m sorry I never said you were that smart or... and for insulting you. Please, Benni-babe!”

Benni simply raised his other hand to stabilize his aim on her.

Hellen whimpered, her voice jumping several octaves as she said, “But I thought you loved me! What about all we’ve been through together? All the pleasure we’ve shared… in each other’s arms!”

Benni shrugged. “I’ve had better,” he said coldly, and then pulled the trigger.

A bright red glow crackled in the muzzle of the compact gun, and across the space between Hellen and Benni, a fine blood red beam flared, striking Hellen in the centre of her chest. She let out an ear-splitting scream as a blinding red glow enveloped her. Soon only it was visible before the fire shield, causing Benni to squint. After a brief moment, Benni released the trigger of the compact gun and the light slowly faded away. Hellen was gone. All that remained was a burnt mark on the fire shield where Hellen had stood.

Benni sighed with relief, not a hint of remorse on his face or in his blue eyes. He was on cleanup duty now. Nothing but that and capturing his target mattered anymore. Returning the weapon to its hidden location on his person, he started to redress himself, except he shrugged off heavy security uniform’s jacket and tossed it to the floor. He needed easier access to Lara. Flipping it open again to reveal the hidden compartment, Benni started to entered a series of commands, while he asked the device: “So where are those two muscled idiots, Lara?“

A sharp beep replied to him and two purple lights flared up from the wrist device, creating a three-dimensional holographic map of the station. He watched as the holographic image zoomed into three blinking lights in a corridor on the docking side of the station.

“Ah, there you are,” Benni said with a grin. “Thank you, Lara. Reliable as ever. Glad to have you back. Now let’s see if we can make the Muscle Brother’s departure just as enjoyable as Hellen’s, shall we.”

The wrist device, Lara, made a sharp beep in reply, which made Benni chuckle. A moment later, a purple glow from Lara enveloped him. He was off to his next cleanup job.

oOo

Jenny’s wide blue eyes slowly narrowed on the metallic, cylindrical device in her left hand. Her lips pursed and her nose wrinkled. A thousand thoughts, fears, and expletives ran through her mind, but of those, only a few low grumbles about sonic devices and their shortcomings made it past her lips. She turned the sonic screwdriver in her hand and let it roll back and forth in the palm.

Then her left hand’s gripped tightened around it and her gaze snapped up to the dark screen before her. She glared at the screen for a moment before reaching out with her right hand to tap a couple times on the keyboard. Nothing happened. Jenny muttered to herself for a moment before her gaze snapped back down to the sonic screwdriver again. Jenny had been doing the same pattern of actions over and over again for the last several minutes. Her temper was ready to burst.

It was then that Jenny loudly asked the vast, empty junction point room, “What have I done wrong?” Unfortunately, it was the same question she had been asking the room every time she got frustrated with looking between the sonic screwdriver and the black screen. Yet, still she had no answer

_Not like I can contact dad for help, not since the sprinklers started to affect the communicator along with almost every other electronic device in range of them. Only reason the sonic screwdriver isn’t out is, as father put it, it is sonic, whatever that means. But even if I could get a hold of him, what good would it do? I’ve done everything he told me. I’m sure I did it right. I entered 19966 into the settings. I set the power level to only seventy-five percent. I pointed it directly at the keyboard, not the screen... So why did it not work? Why..._

Jenny shook the sonic screwdriver in her hand. She wanted to scream and throw the sonic screwdriver into the nearest airlock. But a flickering yellow glow stopped her thoughts cold and drew Jenny’s attention. It was coming from in front of her, and much to Jenny’s speechless astonishment, the bright yellow glow was coming from the wall-mounted computer screen of the transmat pad. Her blue eyes widened to take in a lit screen with a series of thick yellow text:

_Welcome to the Museum of Lost History._

_Please enter inquiry._

Jenny took a step back, feeling slightly dumbfounded and also briefly afraid. She scrutinized the wall-mounted computer before her, letting her gaze glide up and down it. A new question tugged at her mind:  _why was it working?_

She tentatively reached a hand out and lightly tapped the keypad, just to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating or had gone completely mad. When garbled text appeared due to her random tapping, she sighed with relief.

_So it is working, but I wonder why. Did Dad know and do something to fix it or did the computer hear me or..._

Jenny bit her lip as she considered a more realistic and simple answer.

_Or maybe I jumped the gun and the computer takes bit longer than expected to restart. Yeah, that must be it. Has to be. Stupid computer and with its slow start-up! See that’s why I don’t like them. They’re too unreliable and too bloody slow... particularly when you’re in a hurry. Much rather rely on a blaster than a computer any day. A blaster never lets you down._

Nodding in agreement with herself, she went to entering the exhibit’s name: Rellium.

“It will be good to see that Rellium girl again,” Jenny said to herself, “Yes, a nice, boring visit for once, and before we have to go back to Earth and Donna’s family dinner... and back to a dress.” She groaned. “Now that is truly boring.”

A flash of white light enveloped Jenny for a moment. She couldn’t see anything, but the next moment the light was gone and she found herself looking at a new wall-mounted computer screen. The words “Welcome to the Rellium exhibit” were clearly visible on the screen now. Jenny smiled at it, but her breath was stolen from her lips when she heard the all too familiar sound of a blaster charging.

“Well, well,” a familiar voice growled. “Hello again, Pretty.”

 

_To be continued..._


	15. Trouble's Trap

No time at all had passed for Benni. The process of teleportation was instantaneous. One second he had been standing in the middle of the expansive, white Gallifrey exhibit with the black smear that had once been Hellen for company. Then, he had activated Lara, causing a flash of purple light and turning him into disrupted molecules. In the blink of an eye, Benni stood in a brightly lit, tidy junction point room somewhere on the docking side of the station. Drawing in a deep breath, Benni cast his steady gaze around for his next targets, but neither of the Muscle Brothers was in sight.

Benni’s brow furrowed as he looked down at Lara, checking it. He was sure he’d set his wrist device’s tracking mode to hone in on the brainless wonders, but then again, Lara had been out of commission for nearly a half hour after being sprayed with that intruder’s concoction. Perhaps it was not up to full functionality yet. He checked the device’s readouts again, while debating whether or not he should waste time running a diagnosis on Lara. “Well, according to this they must be close by,” Benni said to himself. “I wonder can get bit more accurate coordinates, if I...”

Even as he pondered his next course of action, he heard voices talking overly loudly somewhere nearby. He was sure one of them sounded a lot like Kytte; he would have known that sarcastic growl anywhere after weeks of hearing it mixed with his bellowing laughter.

“You speak big for a little man,” Kytte’s voice boomed soon followed by a defiant snort.

Benni’s gaze snapped up from Lara. He looked across the junction point room towards the source of the voices. They seemed to be echoing forth from an arching doorway just left of Benni. He headed towards it, first quietly striding up to the curving wall and then edging slowly along it. He gazed around the corner into the arching doorway, and instead of seeing the hallways that tended to connected perpendicularly to the junction point rooms in the museum portion of the station, this arching doorway led to a tangent corridor lined with docking airlocks. Specifically, Benni had a slightly askew view of a confrontation, which was close to a docking airlock marked in big white letters: D-744.

Benni first sought out the Muscle Brothers and noticed only Lytte standing on the other side of a blue energy barrier. Lytte was currently standing near the centre of his side of the energy barrier with his blaster raised and aimed at a figure that was on Benni’s side of the blue energy barrier.

Benni studied the man for a second. His eyes narrowed on the man’s slender form coated in a long, old-fashion brown coat. “Unusual coat for this time period. He must not be from this time, or at least the coat isn’t. It looks to be from old Earth, I’d wage a guess sometime during the 20th Century,” he said to himself, “Very strange choice, but I suppose...”

He paused watching the long coat wave about the man with each grand gesture of the man’s arms. He might not be able to see the man’s face, but there was a feeling of ‘superiorness’ and energy about the way the man held himself as well as a ‘knowingness’ tone to his voice. “I suppose it does suit him... well, it would if not for that wild brown mess he calls hair. Hasn’t he heard of a comb?” It was then that Benni stopped in his judgement of the man, and slowly considered the man’s unusual appearance.

An excited feeling filled Benni. “But I suppose the odd combination does further go to proving that this intruder is a Time Lord,” Benni said as a small grin formed on his face “Only a powerful being could be confident enough or the mindset to wear the messy hair, long brown coat, and red and white tennis shoes in public.”

His grin grew. He mused about Time Lords and what extra reward he might get from his bosses, if he brought one or two in. He knew top of that list would be upgrades for Lara and a new stealth ship, but before his musings got too far into the realm of wishing, the possible Time Lord’s voice drew Benni back to the present. It wasn’t the words the possible Time Lord said, no, they were just everyday words, but the way the man with wild hair spoke. There was so much authority and clarity in his voice and the possible Time Lord’s attitude was so commanding as if one must pay attention or else; and momentarily, it distressed Benni.

“Oh, I really don’t think you should be doing that Kytte. Some things, well, most in your case, you shouldn’t be tampering with,” he said in a low voice.

“What?!” Lytte said questioningly and loud.

The man with wild hair sighed and fluffed his hair with a left hand. “Look, chaps, I’ll put it simply, so simple that even as someone dumb as mud would understand it.”

“Oi!” Lytte cried. “Don’t go calling my brother stupid!” There was the distinct sound of a blaster charging.

The possible Time Lord who was still trying to reason with the Muscle Brothers seemed to ignore Lytte’s comment. “Kytte, I don’t want to hurt you or your brother. I have no reason. No possible reason in the universe. Nope, nope, nope. Not as long as you don’t make me,” he said threateningly, strolling towards the right side of the hallway. Benni’s gaze followed him. “In fact, if you promise to be really nice and not shoot me again, I’ll even let you go and you can be on your way long before the Intergalactic Patrol arrives to deal with the fire alarm. Off you’ll be!  _Allons-y!_ _!_ ”

There was a snort of disdain in response, and Benni looked to see who it was. It wasn’t Lytte, because his lips were still set with his most serious frown, while aiming his blaster at the possible Time Lord, and obviously, he wouldn’t have snorted at his own words, so that left only one other. Sure, enough, Benni finally spotted Kytte’s head poking around the corner of Airlock D-744’s doorway. Benni’s left eyebrow rose up his forehead. His interest was piqued.

_What is Kytte doing... or trying to do?_

Benni quickly took note of the surroundings. A dark gray, metal panel covering for a wall-mounted computer lay face down behind Kytte, and dangling down the wall and over the floor was a mess of multi-coloured wires. Kytte gave a sharp tug on some of them, causing a few sparks to erupt.

“Oi!” the possible Time Lord yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Kytte. “Stop that! Stop that right now!”

Kytte snorted in amusement. “Make me, little man,” he growled.

The strange slender man with wild hair, i.e. possible Time Lord, crossed his arms in front of him, and from the way that Lytte suddenly averted his eyes, Benni was sure the man must be blazing a truly intimidating glare. Lytte had never been the brave one of the pair, but he was at least smart to not face down death. That’s when an idea began to form in Benni’s head.

_Death... death... death... dangerous things come to those who play around with things that don’t concern them. Those too stupid to understand. Hmmm... be a shame if stupid Kytte were to ‘accidentally’ cause a back surge from the airlock system. Who knows what might happen?_

A wicked smirk formed on Benni’s lips. “Naughty, naughty, Kytte,” Benni said cruelly. “You really shouldn’t be playing around with stuff like that. You never know what could happen… and will happen.”

Benni slid back into the junction point room, turning immediately around to face the wall. His fingers ran along the smooth, grey, and metallic surface, feeling the subtle vibrations emanating from beneath. They stopped only when he reached a spot just right of the arching doorway into the tangent corridor of airlocks. There was no wall-mounted computer there, not like in the museum exhibits. Those were rarer on the docking side of the station, expect for the occasional emergency ones and airlock keypads. But Benni didn’t need one, when he could so easily make an access point all by himself.

He lifted his wrist with Lara and entered the ‘laser cutter’ command into the keypad. Then, bringing his wrist up close to the wall, Benni clicked the activation button, and, immediately, a steady red beam flared forth from it. The beam burned into the wall, slicing the metal as if it was butter. Slowly moving his wrist in a clockwise direction in front of the wall, he created a curving burnt path, only stopping when a slightly bigger than a head-sized square outline was created. He turned it off and then reached forward, removing the segment of the wall to reveal the innards. As with every other wall of the station, there was an array of wires and blinking computer components hidden just beneath the metal panelling. Using Lara, Benni started to scan those components looking for just the right connection; just the right trigger for his trap.

oOo

The Doctor was at wits end. He was tempted to just leave the two thick-headed humans trapped between the blue energy barriers he’d placed on either side of them. He was sure by now Jenny would be waiting for him at the TARDIS, probably more than ready to get out of here, and he wanted to see her again. There was still the dark incident in the cleaning closest between them. He’d like to fix the damage he’d caused in their relationship, or at least, know that they could put it behind them, like every other stupid mistake he’d ever made and move on.

Despite his desire, the fact that his prisoners weren’t listening to reason and were potentially putting themselves at risk by messing with that Airlock D-744 computer forced the Doctor to stay. He returned to the emergency wall-mounted computer he’d first used to activate the blue energy barriers. His new plan of action was to deactivate the airlock keypad in front of Kytte. Perhaps if he could shut down the power, it would make the Muscle Brothers more agreeable to surrendering, at least, that’s what the Doctor planned.

“Come on, come on,” the Doctor said as he fingers flew across the keypad, clicking out a series of commands into the emergency protocols. He was trying to convince the station’s mainframe that the power needed to be shutdown, because of a glitch with Airlock D-744’s keyboard, when a message suddenly appeared on the screen.

**D-744 Outer Emergency Hatch Opening.**

A moment later, a soft, sweet sounding female voice sounded in the hallway, pulling the Doctor’s attention up. “Please stand clear of Docking door D-744. Thank you.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, sounding alarmed as his gaze shot back to the computer. His fingers momentarily floated over the keys as his mind tried to take in the message. “That shouldn’t be happening. It can’t be!” His gaze snapped up from his wall-mounted computer again when he heard the distinct click of a door release.

“What was that, Big Brother,” Lytte asked. When the Doctor looked towards him, he noticed Lytte’s gaze was snapping this way and that about the hallway.

There was a loud yelp from Kytte, drawing the Doctor’s attention to him, and Kytte dashed back from his position in the archway of Airlock D-744 towards Lytte. Kytte pointed with a shaking left hand at the place he’d just vacated. His mouth was opening and closing very quickly as his blue eyes widened.

The Doctor glanced in the direction of Airlock D-744 archway, but he could see nothing from where he was standing. However, from the slacked jawed expressions of both Muscle Brothers, the Doctor could guess it wasn’t good. A cold chill ran over him.

“But... but...” Lytte stuttered, looking between the archway and his brother. “But how could the outer door get released like that. It shouldn’t be just floating away! Big Brother?”

“Door?” the Doctor asked as his gaze snapped back and forth between them and the airlock archway.

No one answered him as both Herculean men looked at each and then again at the arching doorway.

“Hey!” the Doctor declared, feeling very left out. “What’s going on? Has something happened to the airlock? Look if you can tell me, I might be able to help.”

“Help!” Kytte growled, now turning in the Doctor’s direction. His blue eyes were a blaze. “Why would you want help us, little man?!”

“Well...” the Doctor started to explain.

Kytte didn’t wait for the Doctor’s reply as he pointed accusingly at the Doctor. “You did this! You’re trying to kill us!” he thundered.

“What?!” the Doctor exclaimed. His eyes widened in shock. “No! No, no, no.”

“Yes, yes, yes!!” Kytte stated angrily. “You even threatened us earlier.”

“Yes, he did, Big Brother. He certainly did,” Lytte added, also glaring at the Doctor. “He said he’d hurt us...”

The Doctor sighed. “You’re taking my words completely out of context,” he said, making a few wide gestures, “I would never, well, almost never, hurt someone willingly... if I can avoid it... usually.” He paused, shaking his head. “Look, the point is I...”

“Shut it you!” Kytte shouted, lifting his blaster and aiming it at the Doctor. “Stop this right now... or... or this time I won’t purposively miss.”

The Doctor seriously doubted Kytte’s words about purposively missing earlier, but the Doctor didn’t want to take the risk again, and at any rate, he couldn’t just let them die, even if they were trying to kill him and probably planned on doing so after he saved them.

So the Doctor simply said, “I’ll do what I can.”

He dashed back towards the emergency wall-mounted computer and went to work, accessing the main security system. Line after line of code flew past his eyes and his fingers clicked away at a rate beyond that of a human. There were so many layers of emergency firewalls and protocols to bypass. It was tricky and very complicated, especially sans screwdriver, but nothing that the Doctor couldn’t handle or so he thought. He had just managed to recode the emergency docking procedures with only his bare wits (something he was sure his Fifth self would have been proud of) when all of a sudden the coding defaulted back to its original setting and the screen went blank for a moment as it restarted.

“What?” the Doctor asked, smacking the wall-mounted computer with the palm of his left hand. “What?!” The computer rebooted, showing the main menu, and the Doctor didn’t know why. He was sure he hadn’t activated the restart command. “No, no, of course not! I mean... I don’t think so...” Biting his lip, he ran over all the new coding he’d done in the emergency system, and then a new message flashed across the screen.

**D-744 Inner Emergency Hatch Opening.**

The Doctor’s eyes widened as he heard the soft, sweet sounding female voice again. “Please stand clear of docking Airlock D-744. Thank you.”

His gaze snapped in the Muscle Brothers’ direction as a red glow suffused the hallway and a loud siren sounded again. Both of the brothers had looks of terror written across their well-shaped faces. The Doctor’s mouth opened to warn them, but he knew it was pointless as soon as he heard the unmistakable popping sound. It was the ejection of an airlock door. Instantly, the Doctor felt a violent pull in the direction of Airlock D-744 followed by a powerful wind. All the air around him sucked in the direction of the same airlock.

oOo

Jenny shut her eyes and sighed. She couldn’t believe her luck, going from one dangerous situation and straight into another. After what had happened on Earth and here in the Museum of Lost History, she was starting to wonder if bad luck was yet another aspect of her father’s life, one he’d conveniently forgot to mention with all the running and saving worlds. It wasn’t that, at the time, she would have minded the constant danger, but she’d have liked to have known about it before hand.

Giving another sigh, she shook her head, once more pushing her father from her thoughts. Jenny slowly turned around to face her capturer. She already knew who it was and really wasn’t happy about seeing him again. Of course, that excluded the fact she'd like to pay him back for what he tried to do to her and her father with a one-two punch to his overly smug face, and perhaps, a nice painful blaster shot to a limb or two.

“Hello, Ulean,” Jenny said sarcastically, fixing him with sour glare.

Ulean’s round unshaven face wore a devious smirk. Jenny really hated it and wished she can wipe it from his face. “Well, well, it is nice to see you too, Pretty. Very nice indeed.” he said, chuckling wickedly. “Now don’t go trying anything. This time I ain’t alone... but you are.”

Jenny looked at him sceptically for a moment, until the soft sound of footsteps pulled her attention away from Ulean. Through an archway from a connecting exhibition, strode a tall, slender man with smoothed-back blond hair. His frowning face was cleanly shaved with a hooked nose and piercing green eyes, which narrowed on her. Unlike Ulean, the slender man wore a spotless blue jumpsuit and kept his arms behind his back as he continued towards them. He cocked his head to one side as his brow furrowed.

“Her?!” he asked accusingly in a nasally sounding voice. Then his head cocked to the other side and his green eyes widened for a few moments before narrowing again. He scoffed, looking her up and down with a mixture of disgust and disbelief in his voice and on his face. “Her? This... this child... this little girl has been causing all this ‘supposed’ trouble. Really?”

“Yes, Rez,” Ulean grunted simply.

Rez, the slender man, snapped his head in Ulean’s direction before his eyes narrowed on Ulean. “She looks barely old enough to comprehend the mechanics of weaponry.

“Oi!” Jenny exclaimed, glaring at the thin man.

Rez raised a hand and shushed her. Jenny’s mouth fell open and a few choice bad words built up on the tip of her tongue.

“Well, it was her and the man with her, she referred to him as her father,” Ulean pointed out, still maintaining his blaster’s aim on her. “He’s definitely the brains of the pair, but she’s not a weakling either, at least that’s how I understand it.”

“Hmmm,” the man breathed. His eyes widened and narrowed a few times. He appeared to be looking at a point on the floor. His right hand rose to his chin and he started to rub it thoughtfully. “I suppose she must be something...”

“Of course, I am!” Jenny declared. “I’m a Time Lord!”

“Time... Lord?” Rez said questioningly.

“She says,” Ulean said, cutting in with a snort of doubt.

“And what does that mean?” Rez inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Neither Ulean nor Jenny answered. Instead, the hallway suddenly lit with a red glow.

“What the...?” Ulean stated, but the blare of a low groaning siren drowned him out.

They all looked upward. No one spoke as three pairs of eyes shifted this way and that way. Jenny was sure they were just as confused as she felt. Questions breezed through her mind about what was going on, until a soft female voice momentarily replaced the siren.

“Containment Alert! All security personnel report to Airlock D-744 to secure it for resealing.” There was a pause and then the female voice continued, “There is no need for guests in the museum to be concerned; please stay in the museum portion of the station until further notice. We ask all guests in the docking side to remain where you are. Security personnel will soon be along to safely escort you away from all decompressed areas. Thank you!”

Rez groaned, drawing Jenny’s attention back towards him and Ulean. He slapped his left hand over his forehead, rubbing it over his closed eyes. “Those muscle-bound idiots!” he growled. “I just know it... it’s them.”

“What... what if it isn’t them, but...” Ulean said, gazing at Rez with a raised left eyebrow.

That set Rez off lecturing Ulean, while Ulean listened intently to his commanding officer. Neither of them gave Jenny a glance. That’s when she realised the time had come, the time to act. Jenny dared to step off the raised transmat platform.

 

_To be continued..._


	16. Guilt & Guile

The Doctor tried to draw in a breath from the air rushing past him and out the opened airlock. He would have followed it out into the deadly vacuum of space, if he wasn't still clinging to the wall-mounted computer. His knuckles turned white when his grip tightened on the edge of the computer, resisting the urge to adjust his grip. He feared that he might not be able to regain it again if he did. Even as he kept his focus on his grip, the Doctor couldn’t help but hear the shrieks of the Muscle Brothers. Their cries reminded him that he wasn’t in as much danger as them. There was, after all, an energy barrier between him and the opened airlock.

“Of course, being forced against an electrified energy barrier wouldn’t be much better than getting sucked out into space,” the Doctor reminded himself. Hearing another cry of terror, the Doctor’s thoughts shifted directions. “But still, I have to do something. I can’t just let them die.”

The Doctor dared a glance towards Airlock D-744, and when he did, he couldn't turn away. The blue energy barrier was going crazy, flickering wildly as air whizzed through it. Everything beyond the energy barrier was coloured electric blue and lit with an aura of white. But there wasn’t much to see beyond, the Doctor quickly noted, except for Lytte. The sandy-blond Herculean man clung to the edge of the inner archway of the airlock. Only his face was visible and that was a picture of pure terror. There was a grimace on his lips and fear flickering in his moist eyes.

With a horse voice, which with the quickly vanishing air sounded little more than a whisper to the Doctor, Lytte said, “Please!.... Don’t kill me too! Please! Oh please!”

The Doctor could only think of one thing to say to Lytte. “Hold on!” he shouted at Lytte, “Just hold on!” Turning his attention back to the wall-mounted computer, the Doctor scanned the introductory menu on the screen. He tried to figure out how he could resituate the energy barriers over the airlock in a more solidified way, so he and Lytte wouldn’t suffocate. As he worked on that problem, another more horrible question gnawed at his mind, impeding his ability to come to a solution:  _Did I cause the airlock doors to open in the first place?_

_No! It... it can’t be that. I’m sure I bypassed everything properly, well, properly enough to shutdown the airlock’s power and transfer it to some other random location. I think. Yes, of course, I did! And it can’t be because of Jenny using the sonic screwdriver on the fire protection system. I’m sure I set up the emergency system to respond with only the fire shield... and the sprinklers. Well, mostly sure, since I really didn’t know just how wide spread the sprinklers might be triggered... or what my concoction would affect... maybe... Maybe it affected some other station system in reaction... maybe I... inadvertently caused some glitch to form in the emergency system, causing a reboot... No, no, it just can’t be! I... I couldn’t have... I think._

The Doctor squeezed his eyes shut and mentally scolded himself for wasting time with self-deprecation. Growling, he inched his left hand along the wall-mounted computer and towards the keypad, while his right hand maintained his strangle hold on the frame. He decided to focus his efforts towards fixing this now, instead of letting wasting time blaming himsel. He might have caused the death of one brother, but he could at least save the other.

As every time before the Doctor went to work, leading the computer through the series of menus and security firewalls to find a way to override protocols. The code was so simple to him, so obvious, it should have worked without a hitch, but ‘should’ was the operative word. Even as he typed in a new command ordering the movement of the energy barriers, another message flashed over the computer screen.

**_Beginning Phase 3_ **

**_Temporarily Sealing Leak_ **

The soft, sweet sounding, female voice rang out once more. “Please stand clear of the area around docking Airlock D-744. Thank you.”

The Doctor’s mouth fell open, and he just stared wide-eyed at the screen. “What?!” he exclaimed utterly baffled. “What!!” He gaped at the message, contemplating about what he might have done to cause this reaction and what it meant for him and Lytte. Mere seconds passed before the red glow filled the hallway again and the siren sounded. Then there was the loud metallic thudding from the direction of Airlock D-744 as if someone had suddenly dropped an anvil to the ground.

At the same time, the pulling force tugging the Doctor towards the energy barrier suddenly stopped, catching him completely off guard. He violently fell to his knees, losing his grip on the wall-mounted computer. Then a gentle rush of fresh oxygen filled the hallway around him. Even before turning around, the Doctor already knew what these telltale signs meant. He quickly twisted to face Airlock D-744 only to find a fire shield in the way.

“No!” yelled the Doctor, clamouring back on to shaky legs and reaching towards the wall-mounted computer again. He pounded on the keypad, but now it was unresponsive. “Come on, come on!”

A split second later, there upon the screen was a new message.

**_This emergency computer is temporarily offline, according to safety procedure R7-89D4_ **

**_Emergency Vaccumization Protocol Complete on Airlock D-744_ **

**_Emergency Units are on their way to secure damaged area._ **

Again, the soft, sweet sounding, female voice rang throughout the hallway. “Containment Alert! All security personnel report to Airlock D-744 to secure it for resealing.” There was a pause and then the female voice continued, “There is no need for guests in the museum to be concerned; please stay in the museum portion of the station until further notice. We ask all guests in the docking side to remain where you are. Security personnel will soon be along to safely escort you away from all decompressed areas. Thank you!”

The Doctor leaned his head forward, resting it against the wall-mounted computer. The Doctor’s breathing was shamelessly loud as he sucked in great mouthfuls of the sweet smelling air. He was alive, but he had failed. Lytte was dead: due to suffocation or being sucked out into space. Guilt didn’t even begin to describe how the Doctor felt.

Drawing in another breath, the Doctor tried to bring control over the torment coursing through him. Part of him wanted to cry or to scream at the outrage of it all. He’d screwed up again due to his arrogance and know-it-all behaviour, and more people had paid with their lives as a result. Hundreds of faces flipped through his mind as lifetimes of guilt flooded him. Too much pain weighed him against that wall-mounted computer, but even as he felt plagued, the Doctor knew he couldn’t stay here feeling sorry for the Muscle Brothers or hating himself. Jenny was waiting, and if his bad luck of late was any sign, she might just be in need of his help as well.

After a moment of collecting himself, the Doctor pushed away from the wall-mounted computer. He gazed one last time towards the fire shield. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he said softly, backing away from it. Then he turned and started to run.

As he turned the corner into one of the corridors that connected the docking side of the station to the museum sections, the Doctor never noticed the smirking shadowed form of Benni following several paces behind him. Nor did he hear Benni’s muffled sniggering.

oOo

 

An ominous blood-red glow lit the hallway exhibit. Shadows trailed across the dark carpeted floor and along the display showcases and indents, depriving them of their spotlights. The display indents were nothing but black voids now. Jenny took advantage of the patchy red gloom, edging very slowly towards Ulean. The scruffy-faced thief was still focused on his commanding officer, Rez, who was still lecturing him. It was almost too perfect for Jenny. She lifted her arms before her, clutching both hands into fists.

_Stay focused, Jenny. Just focus_ , she thought as she took another step forward.

Before Ulean or Rez had a chance to glance back towards her, she struck. Her left arm swung outward, colliding violently with Ulean’s blaster. Both the blaster and Ulean’s right arm were repelled back and straight into Rez’s chest. The commanding officer made an ‘oof’ sound before falling against the shadow-covered wall. His head struck the wall hard, slumping to the ground.

Ulean didn’t have any time to react to the first blow. Jenny swung her right fist towards his face, slugging him under the chin. Ulean’s head snapped back. His right elbow accidentally collided with Rez’s face as Ulean tried to stabilize his footing.

Jenny twisted her body leftward and delivered a powerful high-kick straight into Ulean’s chest. Finally, he fell onto his huge bottom. Unfortunately, Ulean never completely lost his grasp on the blaster. There was no time to snatch it from his hold.

“Blast!” Jenny exclaimed before making a quick decision.   
  
She’d lost the element of surprise. Now she needed to hide and think of a new strategy, so off she went down the Rellium hallway exhibit. Lucky for her, the hallway curved a bit, giving her even more cover in the red gloom. She spared a brief glance back. A smile curved her lips when she didn’t see nor hear Ulean coming. Jenny turned her gaze forward again. Almost instantly, she spotted in the blood-red glow and shadows of the hallway the big, blue form of the TARDIS.   
  
“Yes!” Jenny said excitedly. Without hesitation, she dashed up to the TARDIS. Even before she’d come to a complete stop in front of the double doors, her left hand fell upon the chipped, blue exterior. “Oh, you have no idea how glad I’m to see you.” Her left hand soothingly moved over the white sign about ‘public use’ and down to the keyhole.

Jenny couldn’t say she wasn’t tempted to just pull out her key and take refuge inside the time ship. Her father had said there was no place safer in the universe than inside the TARDIS. But even as her left hand instinctively reached into her left pants pocket, she knew she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t just go inside and hide. If she did, then she’d be leaving her father alone to face the danger of the remaining thieves, and after what she’d done to Ulean, Jenny was sure the gun-toting thug would be out for blood.

_And knowing Dad and his luck, he’ll probably walk straight into the line of fire._

“I just can’t let that happen, even if I’m upset at him... after what happened. I just can’t do that,” Jenny said with a frown on her face. Despite her words, her left hand clenched around the small key in her pants pocket. She was trying to convince herself, despite her childish fears. “A soldier doesn’t run from danger just because she’s scared or weaponless... or outnumbered. And I’m not leaving him... the Doctor behind to face the odds alone. I can’t. We don’t leave our own behind. It would be cowardice and wrong... and... I won’t runaway!”

She made up her mind. Forcing herself to pull her left hand from her pocket, Jenny reached it out before her instead to pat the TARDIS’s wooden door one more time. “I’ll be back,” she told the TARDIS, even though she knew it was silly to talk to the ship. “We both will.”

Witha deep breath, Jenny turned around to face the rest of the hallway. Her gaze moved between both sides of red gloominess of the hallway: the line of display indents were on one side and the display showcases on the other. She needed a hiding place, and since she’d already decided against the TARDIS, the question was where was the next best one? Her eyes ran over the darkened display indents again; they seemed an obvious choice, but which one?

_Two clear choices: lit and not lit. I think it would be wiser to go with the not lit. Knowing my luck lately, Ulean will probably spot me in a lit one. He's mad and too focused not to spot me in plain sight. Much like Dad... in the cleaning closest. Just one bright flashing 'come and get me' beacon._

Jenny shivered at the thought of her father’s fiery outburst. She had more or less convinced herself to forgive him for that incident, and she had come to realise there had to be more reasons for his vengeful words and actions than just being upset at her for standing her ground. Yet, Jenny still felt the terrifying influence of that moment. It tempered her actions and decisions. It was influencing her to the point that she hesitated more than she had ever done before. Even now, she was distracting herself with debates about display indents, instead of remaining focused.

_Okay, okay. This is not the time to think about Dad. Stay focused. Focus!_

Drawing in a breath, she made her decision.

_Not lit. It just has to be. Someone as mad as Da... Ulean definitely won’t be likely to miss me, even if he is as stupid as Ulean. So I should find something more obscured. Somewhere dark. Unfortunately, I don't seem to see many unlit options this exhibit._

Jenny sighed as her gaze snapped this direction and that. All the display indents had motion sensors, and once she was near the black, cylindrical railing, which curved in an upside down U-form before them, it caused many of them to light up. That would instantly spoil any chance of hiding. But, as Jenny walked past the display indent with the young girl in the Rellium village, one display indent caught Jenny’s attention. It remained pitch black despite her movement.

An all too familiar low growl emanated from the darkness of that indent, making Jenny back away slowly. She could once again see the piercing yellow eyes of the beast within. “Oh, you stupid lion … creature or whatever you are,” Jenny scolded the holographic creature that crept in the shadows. Her gaze shifted to the next display indent, hoping it might prove to be a better choice. She had started towards it when the sound of fast-moving, heavy footsteps echoed from the direction she’d come down the hallway. There was no time to check out this display indent or look for another. “Oh, you better not bite kitty.”

Despite the threatening growl that emanated forth, Jenny hurried inside the holographic creature’s dark realm. She crouched down to a kneeling position as far back into the display indent as she could go, and not a moment too soon. Even as the growling noises continued, Jenny heard the sound of the heavy footsteps steadily growing louder. She watched the gapping entrance to the display indent for movement.

Then like a moving black, round scorch mark against the blood red glow of the hallway, Ulean appeared. He wasn’t looking at the display indent. Instead, he was lumbering forward, breathing heavily. He came to a halt near the right side of the display indent's entrance with his blaster at the ready. There was a grimace on his face, which now that Jenny looked closely had a very nice bruise forming on his round, scruffy chin. He looked quite irate and ready to kill, just as Jenny had predicted. She took that as a good enough reason to use her stealth skills and stay as invisible as possible, but the noises of the lion-like creature made that hard. Very soon, Ulean’s gaze had shifted in her direction. He was squinting, cocking his head from side to side as if trying to see into the pitch darkness of the display indent.

“Pretty?” Ulean called questioningly. “Pretty, are you in there?” He paused, drawing in a few laboured breaths. “If you’re in there, Pretty, I suggest you come out and make it easy on yourself. I promise I won’t hurt you.” There was a devious smirk on his face. He paused again as if waiting for her to reply or appear.

_He can’t really think I’d just surrender or believe that cock and bull line about ‘not hurting me.’ Please! I mean is he really that stupid?_

Jenny simply kept her mouth shut, glaring at him from her hiding place. The sounds of the lion-like creature continued resonating outward from the darkened display indent. Slowly, Ulean stepped closer to the black, cylindrical railing before it. His blaster raised before him and a smirk growing on his lips.

“Here, Pretty, Pretty Pretty,” he chanted mockingly. “Come out and play, Pretty.” He chuckled wickedly, leaning over the railing and stretching out his blaster as if it alone would cut through the darkness of the display indent. It didn’t, but it did something else. A thunderous roar erupted. A split second later, the creature leapt out across the space between the darkness and the railing.

Ulean gave an almighty shriek of distress, randomly firing off his blaster in the direction of the display indent. He scrambled backwards. In the rush to escape, Ulean tripped, falling on to his rear. He stared wide-eyed at the creature that had stopped at the black, cylindrical railing. It was pacing, completely unaffected by Ulean’s blaster fire.

Jenny hadn’t been as lucky. A few of the shots had nearly hit her. She’d dodged most, but one had singed the end of her long ponytail. In the end, she had to drop to the hard floor. Now she laid there flat on her stomach. Her long ponytail lay over her glaring face.

“It... it isn’t real,” Ulean said, sounding dumbfounded. He sighed with relief before cursing under his breath. “Of course, it isn’t real! Stupid! I should have realised that. There’s nothing real in these indents, nothing that can hurt me.” He blew out a breath, slowing pushing himself back up.

Jenny was brushing her long blonde ponytail out of her face when she heard him say that. His words had made her pause in thought. A strange and yet absolutely brilliant idea came to Jenny’s mind, even if she did say so herself. In fact, it made her grin smugly.

_Perhaps I should take a page out of lion creature’s method of attack. A bit of bait and scare._

She quietly pushed herself up, until she was back on her feet but let her posture remain slightly bent. There she waited, now watching the lion-like creature move from the black, cylindrical railing and back into the shadows of the display indent. It was still making threatening growling noises, and that’s when Jenny made another decision in her plans in terms to the scare factor.

“Glad no one saw me do that,” Ulean said, brushing himself off and turning his gaze back down the hallway. He was no doubt, in Jenny’s mind, still looking for her.

Jenny drew in a long deep breath, opening her mouth wide. In her lowest, roughest voice, she growled threateningly. It was a long drawn out growl that resonated deep in her chest; it was her best imitation of the lion-like creature. Once she’d run out of breath, Jenny paused, and instead, crept slowly forward. She didn’t go too far, just enough that she was a bit closer but still invisible to any onlooker. Of course, she dared to hope her glaring blue eyes might just start to be visible, like the lion-like creature’s eyes before it struck.

Not surprisingly, Ulean only spared the briefest of glances back towards the darkened display indent. He sniffed with distain. “Not going to scare me again, cat,” he said dismissively before turning his attention away from the display indent again.

That put a new smirk on Jenny’s face. She continued quietly forward, still bent over. She curved her hands with fingers spread apart, much like crawls, and fully extended her arms out before her. She stopped again just as the shadows of the indent started to fade around. Ulean did not look in her direction again. Jenny drew in another long breath.

_Only one chance to do this right... or completely screw it up._

Jenny decided not to hesitate again, snapping herself upright. Then she took off full speed towards Ulean. As she did, Jenny let out another thunderous roar, but he did not immediately turn towards her. His gaze was moving back and forth along the red gloom of the hallway. Just as she had reached the railing, Ulean glanced in her direction.

There was a calmness in his dark eyes. He looked like a man simply looking at a picture he’d seen thousands of times before: nothing to take note of or to really care about. He had just started turning his head away when suddenly it snapped back towards her with wide eyes.

Jenny fed on surprise when she placed her hands around the top of the railing. Then using her momentum, she propelled herself up and over the railing. She sailed through the air for a few seconds and then straight down onto Ulean. With all the force of her body and the momentum behind her, Jenny brought Ulean’s huge massive form crashing to the floor.

When they hit the ground with a bang, Jenny reached out her left hand and gripped Ulean’s right wrist. It was the same hand with the blaster. She struck his right hand and arm against the ground repeatedly, until he released the blaster. The giant metallic weapon tumbled away from them.

Then Jenny raised her right hand, now balled up into a fist, and struck at Ulean’s face. He yelled in protest, trying to turn his face away, but Jenny continued her attack.

In his defence, Ulean’s began to thrash about. His right arm swung about, knocking the blaster across the hallway and freeing his right arm. He started kicking his legs upward and about him. After a few swift kicks, he sent Jenny somersaulting over him.

Luckily, Jenny caught herself and landed in a kneeling position. She steadied her balance, catching her breath. Behind her, she could hear Ulean cursing. Jenny knew she had to quickly act. That is when she remembered the blaster. Her gaze skimmed the carpeted floor, hunting for it in the red glow and shadows. A moment later, she saw it. She had just started reaching towards it when she felt a large hand grip a hold of her right ankle. It gave a sharp tug and her right leg slipped back. Her left leg oddly bent to compensate for the loss of stability.

“Ow!” Jenny hissed as a surge of pain shot up her left knee and thigh. Biting her tongue from crying out, Jenny looked back and saw Ulean glaring up at her.

He bared his teeth, snarling at her like a ravenous dog. “Pretty!!!” Ulean shouted, continuing to jerk her leg closer to him.

The blood was pumping in Jenny’s ears, adrenaline filling ever muscle in her body. The pain in her left knee slightly dulled for a moment. She could now only feel a shiver of coldness racking over her skin. Instinct told her to react, to do something to defend herself and to do it now. Twisting around on her right leg, Jenny delivered a few sharp kicks with her left foot into Ulean’s face.

_One... two... three!_

Then like that, the steely grip on her ankle fell away. Ulean’s head tumbled forward into his chubby left arm, now curled in a circle. His right arm still lay extended out where it had fallen. He was silent, motionless.

Jenny was drawing in frantic, gasping breaths. Her eyes and mouth were wide. Her sprawled body was just coming down off the adrenaline rush. For a moment, she couldn’t comprehend what had happened; only that she was safe.

Then she heard this soft voice echoing in her head. Its words sounded muffled at first. Even the voice sounded overly hushed but there was something familiar about it. Jenny blinked a few times as she focused on making out what the voice was saying. As it grew a louder and clearer, Jenny realised that it sounded an awful lot like her father’s voice. This voice was weaving its way through her consciousness, her senses. It felt odd, considering the fact that her father should be nowhere nearby at the moment. At that revelation, the words of the voice suddenly become vibrantly clear. “Is he alive?”

“He?” Jenny asked, frowning.

“Is he alive?” the voice that matched the tone and strength of her father’s voice asked again.

Then Jenny’s eyes widened, realising it was speaking of Ulean. “Is he alive?” Jenny asked, repeating the question.

That’s when she started crawling towards Ulean as fast as her aching left knee would allow her. Biting back the pain, she turned the chubby man over, so she could see his scruffy face again. Ulean’s eyes were closed. A smear of blood ran from his nose and down the right side of his scruffy face. The bruise on his chin was even more evident than before. Looking towards his chest, Jenny tried to discern whether he was breathing. She couldn’t tell under the black security uniform, so Jenny instead reached a hand towards his large neck to find a pulse.

Despite the fact, her own blood was still pumping frantically throughout her, Jenny managed to focus her thoughts on Ulean, and after a moment, she found his pulse. It was slow but strong. Drawing in another long breath or two, Jenny sighed happily and with relief. “You’re still alive,” Jenny said. “You’re okay.”

“Which is more than I can say for you, little girl,” growled a nasally voice. A second later, she heard the sound of a weapon charging.

Jenny turned a sharp glance over her shoulder. She immediately met the muzzle of a small but elongated black gun pointed at her head. “Oh, I don’t believe this,” she grumbled before looking up at the holder of the weapon.

Rez glared back at her with his right hand extended holding the black gun and his left hand holding a white handkerchief to his narrow nose. “Oh, there’s nothing to believe anymore, little girl,” The mouth of the black gun pulsated red. “You’re dead!”

_To be continued..._


	17. Similar Parallels

Jenny looked straight into the red, pulsating muzzle of Rez’s gun and didn’t blink. Instead, blowing out a hurried breath, she fixed Rez with a glare. In a short, defiant voice, she said one word:

“No.”

Rez’s eyes immediately widened and his snarl dissolved into gaping expression. “What!?”

“I said,” Jenny told him sternly, still not blinking, “No.” Her brow furrowed further, and she turned herself fully in his direction, straightening her back.

“Yes, yes, I got that,” Rez said sarcastically, sharply nodding his head, “but how can you… what are you saying no to?” His posture suddenly seemed drawn back, not exactly relaxed, but definitely not as ready to shoot her. There was hesitance even in the way he tilted his gun slightly back.

Instantly, Jenny knew Rez was right where she wanted him: utterly bewildered. “Oh, you know,” she said casually, or as casually as her heavy breathing would allow. She drew in a deep breath, taking her good time to explain. Jenny was playing for time, because she knew that, right now, she had no energy left to fight Rez. She had to take a page from her father and use her head to get her out of this situation. But to do that, she needed time.

“What!” Rez pressed loudly.

Jenny knew thinking wasn’t her first strong suit, not like her father, so she had to play with Rez’s head, hoping to keep him off balance, curious and unsure. Hopefully with enough time, she’d figure out a better strategy – some piece of military information in her head that could save her and immobilize him. Continuing with her delaying tactics, Jenny dipped her head and drew in another deep breath. “Just that,” she said nonchalantly. “...Only that... you’re wrong.”

“Wrong?” Rez said, scoffing. “What precisely do you think am I wrong about, little girl?”

Jenny chuckled, but kept her gaze focused downward. There, on the blank floor, she hoped to keep herself focused, contemplating every strategy she knew. She didn’t trust her instincts not to kick in again, if she looked up, if she saw Rez’s gun. She knew she’d be tempted to try disarming him or running. Instincts, in this case, could get her hurt or worse...

“Wwwwweeeeellll,” Jenny said, slowly sliding her knees closer towards herself. The movement caused a sharp pain to fire up her left thigh, but she refrained from touching the knee and revealing her injury. Instead, she blew out another breath through tightly drawn lips before speaking. “You’re wrong about... thinking you’ve won,” she told him, letting her finger play along her left thigh. There she noticed a rip, and for a moment, was tempted to pull back the rip to see her injury. When she heard Rez’s laughter, she reminded herself that she had to stay focused on figuring a way to defeat him.

_I bet Dad would know what to do in this type of situation._

“Excuse me, you…” he said. “You can’t… possibly think...” Her gaze rose briefly towards him. There was a bemused smile on his face

“‘Cause,” Jenny said, interrupting Rez. “Commander, you’ve lost.”

“Commander? I… me?” Rez said before chuckling again. “I lost? I lost?!” He shook his head a few times. “Oh no, no, no, little girl, I think you’re quite confused.”

“Actually, no,” Jenny said with certainty, letting her gaze dip back to the ground again. “You’ve failed, Commander. You’re entire team has been defeated, is trapped or unconscious. You are alone.”

_And a lone soldier should be much easier to beat than a group, but how?_

There was a snort of contradiction from Rez. A moment later, she heard the distinct buzzing sound of his gun charging. “So are you,” he said coldly.

Jenny swallowed, realising she might just have run out of time, much sooner than she had anticipated. A shiver of fear ran up and down her body. She mentally pounded at her memory without success. Unfortunately, she was as mentally drained as she was physically drained.

_Blast! Why can’t I think? Why can’t think of anything but my bloody throbbing knee? I’m about to be shot and I can’t think of anything else. Oh, I really, really wish Dad was here right now._

A loud ‘whack’ followed by a dull thud shocked Jenny from her thoughts. Her gaze snapped back to the gun, but it wasn’t there. In its place, towering over her crouched position and holding a long, slightly curved wooden paddle in his left hand, was her father.

Jenny’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open. “What…?” she asked, “Where did you…?”

“Nope, nothing like an Earth one,” he interrupted her, lifting the strange wooden weapon in front of him and squinting down its length.

“Sorry?” Jenny said, scrunching her forehead.

Her father didn’t reply, continuing to examine the wooden paddle-like weapon. Just like that, Jenny realised that her father was oblivious to her. His focus was on his wooden weapon, while his right hand ran over the surface, following its curves. He made a clicking sound with his tongue against the top of his mouth. “Look at that… they didn’t even use good old willow to create it. Well, I suppose you can’t blame the Relliots – those are the native inhabitants of Rellium, if you’re interested, Jenny,” he said, sparing the briefest of glances in her direction, but not meeting her gaze. Then he looked back at the wooden weapon, bringing it up to his eye level. “Annnny waaaay... you really can’t blame the Relliots. All wood on Rellium is a bit rubbery. Great for house building... and swing building, bendy enough for that, but not so great for making cricket bats.”

“Cricket bats?” Jenny said questioningly, cocking her head to the side.

Her father slightly shook his head. “Shame really,” he sighed. “A cricket bat just isn’t a cricket bat, if it isn’t made with a nice willow wood and polished to perfection using linseed oil.”

“What’s a cricket bat, Doctor?” Jenny asked, slowly starting to push herself up.

Her father raised an eyebrow in her direction again. “This thing,” he said, lifting the wooden weapon.

“Which is?” Jenny said questioningly, leaning her head in his direction with a wide-eyed stare.

“It’s what cricket players use to hit a cricket ball during a game of… of cricket!” he explained, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. Then he turned his attention right back to the cricket bat, turning it in his hand with a bit of a smile forming on his lips.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay,” she said, managing to get herself on to her knees, a move she quickly regretted. “But ,what’s… ouch!” A wave of pain burned across her left knee and up her left thigh. She cursed once before biting her tongue and falling back on to her bum.

Her father’s gaze snapped towards her with concern. “You okay?” he asked, already moving towards her. He knelt down before her, using the cricket bat to lean on.

“Yeah, fine,” Jenny said with gritted teeth. When she saw her father’s gaze shift towards her left knee, she looked too. Much to her surprise, her hands had instinctively covered her left knee, giving away her lie. “Look it’s nothing… it’s…”

“Jenny, I’ll be the judge of that,” her father said in a very stern, commanding voice. His tone was nowhere near as harsh as in the closet, but still it told her everything she needed to know: ‘shut up and follow my order,’ so Jenny did. When her father laid the cricket bat down beside him and reached for her left knee, she didn’t fight him. Instead, she sat back, giving him a better view of the huge rip in her pants.

He pulled back the material, ripping it slightly more. He was making that thoughtful noise that she had associated with him when he was working on the TARDIS console. He probed the knee under the black material, which forced Jenny to bite her lip from making any sort noise.

“Looks bruised,” he said simply, before pulling back more of the ripped material.

Sure enough, her knee was covered with an array of revolting colours and was starting to look twice the size of her other. Jenny involuntarily cringed at the sight of it. “Oh,” she squeaked out.

“I’d even dare to say you twisted it pretty badly, perhaps even tore the ligaments,” her father said as his right hand moved back into his left overcoat pocket. He fished around in it for a moment, before pulling out a strange hand-sized, white tube with purple squiggly text running along the side of it. “But this should help with the pain for awhile.” He waved the tube in front of her face, winking at her with a smug grin. Her father then proceeded to twist open the cap and squeezed out a liberal amount of a bluish substance into his left hand. Jenny tried to read the container’s text:  _Xianlium Miracle Cream_.

Jenny’s brow furrowed at the words. She’d never heard of the Xianlium and wondered what sorts of miracles could their cream do. Her gaze snapped back towards her father, who was rubbing the cream into the exposed area of her knee. As with everything else over the last few minutes, he did it with great care, and once again, he did it rather quietly.

In hopes of getting him to talk to her, she returned to her prior question. “What’s cricket?” she inquired, nodding towards cricket bat lying beside him.

“Hmmm?” he said questioningly, without raising his gaze from her knee. He was still treating it and appeared to not be paying any attention to her yet again.

Jenny bit her lip from saying something rude. “Crick-et,” she said slowly.

Her father continued to be oblivious to her question. “Jenny, please pass me my sonic screwdriver?”

Jenny scoffed, her mouth falling open, but she didn’t argue despite the urge to do so. “Yes,” she hissed, glaring at the top of his mess of brown hair. He reached out his left hand as she dug into her left pants pocket.

There was plenty she’d like to say to him in argument, but after everything today she just didn’t have the energy. Sure, she was angry, but really all she wanted from him was something that would put all this mess, particularly the closet incident, behind them. It could be as simple as an apology or something more substantial.

_Why did he blow up at me earlier? Was it because I stood up to him, pointing out how we couldn’t just sit by and let the thieves steal the museum’s artefacts? Or is there something more to it? I just don’t get it, and I want to know, so if nothing else, I can avoid doing it again. But Dad’s all closed lip, and I get the feeling he’s not much for honest open conversation._

So Jenny bit her tongue, and instead, said calmly and simply, “Here, Doctor.” She reached out the sonic screwdriver to his outstretched left hand, but her father didn’t grab it.

Jenny saw his gaze had risen to meet hers. His hand hovered over hers, but it never close around the sonic screwdriver. She didn’t understand why, and as she studied her father’s still slightly pale face, she noted his whole demeanour had changed. His shoulders were slumped, making his dishelved and sweaty clothing look worn out and in need of another dry cleaning. There was a mournful frown creasing his normally exuberant facial features, making him suddenly look very, very old. In the depths of his darkened gaze, there was grief and desolation, and despite his gaze locked on her, he appeared mentally light-years away.

His absolutely miserable appearance made Jenny gasp and draw back a bit from her father, but she couldn’t break eye contact with him. It was as if a force held her head in place. An almost overwhelming sorrow oozed its way through her mind and her entire being. It chilled ever fibre of her. Like a choking wave of emotions, it robbed the breath from her lips. If she hadn’t blinked at that moment, finally finding the strength to avert her gaze from her father, Jenny was afraid the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes would have broken the floodgates of emotional turmoil building up inside of her. Still, a small whimper squeaked past her tightly drawn lips.

A second later, she felt the sonic screwdriver snatched from her hand. “Thank you, Jenny,” he said in a low voice. She heard him rise to his feet and move a bit back from her.

Jenny drew in a few deep breaths, wiping away the moisture in her eyes. She wasn’t sure what had just happened. Not for the first time, Jenny had thoughts and feelings not her own coursing through her. When she’d heard her father’s voice earlier, asking her if Ulean was alive, Jenny had felt it too. Both times they’d directly influenced her actions and thoughts, nearly overwhelming her and leaving her feeling slightly invaded. She really didn’t want to think about it, not now.

“Doctor,” she said loudly, refocusing her thoughts. She saw her father’s gaze momentarily shift away from his examination of the sonic screwdriver. A serious expression darkened his face. “Are you going to answer my question?” She leaned back on her hands to allow her injured knee to relax.

“You mean about cricket?” the Doctor questioned back. He drew in a deep breath as Jenny’s lips parted to confirm, but he didn’t wait for her response. “Well, I could,” he said with a shrug. Then barely a second later, his face light up with a huge grin. “But I’d much rather show you.” He gestured for her to follow, taking off down the hallway. “Allons-y!”

“Hey, injured here!” Jenny called after him with a glare. She pointed towards her left knee. “Or don’t you remember just tending it.”

He turned to face her without slowing down his retreating pace. “Yeah, injured but not immobile,” he called back. Her mouth opened to contradict him, but he cut in again. “And you’ll find most of the pain gone now thanks to the Xianlium cream. Mighty powerful stuff that cream. Could be a bit stiff and weak, but that and any injury underneath, we can take care of when we get back to the TARDIS. Now come along! I’ll show you cricket, well, cricket on Rellium, well, cricket on Rellium in the pre-human colonization era. Come along now!”

As her father turned back around, dashing up to a display indent, just a few down from the one with the lion-like creature, Jenny looked down at her exposed, slightly bulging left knee. She cocked her head to one side before tentatively bending and then straightening it. Her mouth fell open. It didn't hurt, just like her father said, and only slightly resistant to movement.

A few silent disbelieving words fell from her lips. Again and again, she flexed her left leg back and forth in the air before her. “Woooooow! That’s... that’s just...”

“Fantastic!” her father finished for her.

Jenny couldn’t help but chuckle as she briefly glanced in his direction. “Yeah, I suppose that’s the word,” she agreed. She leaned forward and started prodding the knee a bit.

“Oi!” her father called from down the hall. “Don’t go lying there all day, lazy!” She looked at his distant figure again with a raised eyebrow “Time’s a wasting!”

“Says the Lord of Time,” Jenny muttered under her breath before rising shakily to her feet. She used the cricket bat, which her father forgot, for support. Once she had got to a stable position, she tested her left knee again. It still amazed her, and she wondered what other tricks or miracles her father carried around in those pockets of his.

“You’ve got to see this diorama of the Relliots playing cricket, well, a close approximation. They never did get the rules right either. Jenny? Jenny, are you coming?” her father called again. Jenny noticed he only spared the briefest of glances towards her. He was so engrossed in the display indent that he was learning further and further over the curving, cylindrical railing. There was a huge grin plastered over his face, but as per usual, it never reached his eyes. “Oooh, look at how rubbery these cricket bats on Rellium were. Looks like clowns pretending to play cricket at a circus!”

Jenny’s brow furrowed again. “What’s a circus, Doctor?” Jenny said questioningly, hobbled towards him.

oOo

The Doctor poked his head out of the TARDIS doors. “Jenny, we’re ready to go,” he called, but there was no answer. Leaning further out of the door, he let his gaze sweep along the dark reddish glow of the hallway. “Jen...,” he started to say when he spotted her kneeling a few feet away near the two bound up thieves. “There you are. Everything alright?”

Jenny didn’t answer again, appearing busy doing something. The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he exited the TARDIS. “Hmmm,” he said, burying his hands in the pockets of his pinstriped suit. He strolled towards her, observing her silent activities.

_Nope, no doubt in my mind any more. She’s too much like me. She’s got my brilliant, charming smile. Lucky her! Unfortunately, she’s also picked up my rudeness, not so good with the accute habit we share to ramble. And she’s definitely enthusiastic and energtic. Glad for the extra energy in the TARDIS, particularly with Donna ‘Negative’ Noble onboard, and now it seems she can get herself just as absorbed into mundane activities, utterly oblivious to all else. Like Father like daughter, I suppose._

“Now, if only I could get her to hone her mental abilities a bit and learn to control her anger... then maybe, just maybe, she’d be well on her way to being a Time Lord,” the Doctor muttered before briefly chuckling.

The idea sounded more like a joke to him than a real solid plan, no longer a feasible idea anymore. Besides, the Doctor realised, Jenny wasn’t the type to be a prim proper Time Lady, not like some he once knew. She never would be, and he was glad of that. Jenny was better off being who she wanted to be, even if the Doctor didn’t know who that was yet.

‘Uh!” Jenny exclaimed, suddenly turning in his direction with an attentive look. “Sorry? What’d you say, Doctor?”

The Doctor quickly flashed a smile, stopping a few feet back from her. “Ah, nothing,” he said nervously, looking for anything but Jenny to gaze at. He spotted a wide-awake Ulean behind her. “So what are you up to with our scruffy friend here?” The chubby thief glared at the Doctor past the thick gray tape wrapped around his head, covering his mouth, and pressing down on his straggly beard.

“Oh,” Jenny said simply, slowly turning her gaze back towards Ulean. “Just checking on him. He woke up while you were in the TARDIS.”

“I can see that,” the Doctor said bluntly, just as he heard Ulean make a series of muffled noises. Jenny clapped a hand over the gray tape, causing Ulean to stop. “I mean, what’s with the tape?”

“To quiet him,” Jenny answered, glancing briefly back at the Doctor. She cocked her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. “He was being quite rude, sir.”

“Ah yes... ,” the Doctor said, sounding disappointed, “sir...”

_Sir. I guess things are still as we left them. I really wished we could have move on from... 'it.' But with Jenny, I’m not sure how. A joke here, a random quip there brushed off almost anyone else. Before you can say Bob’s your uncle, the incident is is forgotten and we’d be off on another adventure. Nothing for them to worry about. But why’s it different now? Actually, I suppose a better question is “why is it different again?”_

Jenny wasn’t the first person to have a different dynamic with him. There had been another person, another time when the Doctor couldn’t just brush off mistakes or not speak his mind on matters of trouble around. Another companion who the Doctor would have done anything for, because she had been family too.

Susan.

She had been the most important person in his life at the time. With Susan, the Doctor never just let things sit and stew or just ignored them, hoping both he and her would forgive and forget them. No, the Doctor had been upfront with his granddaughter. He had controlled her activities, giving her just enough space to let her feel out who she wanted to be. But he had also been very, very protective of her. So when need came, which, as he remembered, happened quite often, he had acted quickly and forthright. He came right out with it, being honest and sometimes cold towards her for her own good, in his mind. He realised he hadn’t always approach her concerning these issues in the kindest or most caring way as he later did with his other companions, but he felt sure he did do what was best for her. He had to be unkind and blunt with her. She was his responsibility, his blood, his kin.

“Jenny...” he said absent-mindedly.

The Doctor realised the same was true for Jenny. She was his responsibility. She came from his blood and, for all intensive purposes, was his kin. More than that, just like Susan, Jenny deserved better than just rushing off into another adventure or some random joke to cover up the whole uncomfortable incident. She deserved the same straightforward, brutal honesty. Except, the Doctor couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew Donna could give him a list of reasons for this inability, but he’d guess, more over than anything else, he was out of practice. A very long time had passed since Susan had travelled with him and left him for a simple life with man she loved... well, technically he’d locked her out of the TARDIS, but he’d seen the longing and loving look she’d given David, and he knew she’d already left him. But that was beside the point. Over the last several centuries, the Doctor had forgotten what it was like on many levels. He didn’t know what it was like to have family traveling with him; to be this close to someone, and actually need and want her; to have someone who needed and depended on him; to have the responsilibity of a child on his shoulders again; and to be completely honest and straightforward with someone he cared about as much as Susan. The Doctor found it very difficult to change back after all these centuries without someone like Susan, worrying about her, never knowing...

“Doctor?” Jenny said questioningly with a raised eyebrow in his direction.

The Doctor drew in a deep, ragged breath, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. He tried to take it all in line, accepting the situation for the moment. Even as it cut deep into the Doctor’s hearts, he refrained from commenting on it. “Okay, just as long as it was necessary, Jenny.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, already turning back to Ulean, “Very necessary. Also, I wanted to make doubly sure these bonds of his hold. Last thing we want is him escaping the Intergalactic patrol.”

The Doctor automatically nodded in agreement as he continued to focus his mind on the here and now and not on the ghosts of his past. “Good,” he said, “Good idea.”

“I thought you might think that, Doctor,” Jenny said, tugging on the ropes wrapped around Ulean. “Good old law and order.”

That drew the Doctor completely from his thoughts. “Sorry?” the Doctor asked with a furrowed brow. “What’s that suppose to mean?”

Jenny’s shoulders hunched slightly as she coughed. “That is, I mean, you did say Time Lords liked their little rule and laws, so I figured, you know, that you’d agree that everyone should face judgement for their crimes and wrong-doings. Fair trial and all that.”

“Well, yes,” the Doctor replied, glancing back at the TARDIS nervously. He’d rather not talk about his people right now or ‘wrong-doings’. He was never one to dwell on the past too much, giving it a chance to catch up on him. “Hmm, so you about ready to head back?”

“Shouldn’t we contact the proper authorities first, Doctor?” Jenny asked, rising to her feet and sparing him a quick glance before returning her gaze to Ulean’s struggling form.

“I’ve already contacted the Intergalactic Patrol in this region of the galaxy and told them to bring a few prison transports for our friends here,” he told her. “So...” He gestured with a swing of his left shoulder towards the TARDIS.

“Good,” Jenny said with a nod, “then all six of them will be behind bars where they belong.”

The Doctor didn’t bother to correct her on the number. He didn’t want to worry her about the Muscle Brothers. He figured he had upset her enough today. The remaining thieves would be brought to justice and get a fair trial for their crimes. He simply said, “Right.”

“So everything is safe again, right?” Jenny asked, placing her hands behind her back and clasping them together. She wouldn’t look at him for more than a few seconds at a time. She wouldn’t meet his gaze. Instead, she stared, somewhat longingly, at the nearest museum display case.

“Yes,” the Doctor said with a shrug. He buried his hands in his pockets, fidgeting with their contents.

“We did something worthy of the Time Lords then,” Jenny said, sounding a bit happy.

“I suppose,” the Doctor said with a shrug.

“Protecting history?” Jenny asked, glancing over her shoulder at the Doctor. “And all that.”

“Yup!” the Doctor said enthusiastically, rocking back and forth on the souls and heels of his feet.

“So then... everything is okay?” Jenny said questioningly, now turning towards him. Her left eyebrow raised.

The Doctor paused on this question, because he could see she wasn’t talking only about the events in the Museum of Lost History or pieces of history that now were safe again.

“Everything is all right?” she asked, pressing for him to answer. Her eyes widened a bit to further emphasize her words.

The Doctor knew now she was talking about them. He swallowed, pulling his hands out of his pockets, nervously trying to find a place on his person to place them. Finally, he returned them to his pockets as he gazed at Jenny, who rested most of her weight on her right foot than her left. The Doctor wasn’t sure how to answer Jenny. Part of him wanted to lie and say, 'Yes, of course' to her and be done with it. However, he knew he couldn’t. At the same time, he knew he wasn’t ready to be completely honest and straightforward with her. Then again, honestly, he didn’t know how to answer her question. So he came up with a happy medium.   
  
“What do you think, Jenny?” he asked seriously.

Jenny’s head dipped. She drew in a deep breath, while she gazed once more at Ulean and the unconscious form of Rez. There was a long uncomfortable pause. All the Doctor could hear was the beating of his two hearts and Jenny’s long, drawn-out breaths. “I…,” Jenny said finally and very slowly. “I think…” She paused again, taking the time to turn completely back towards him. She gave him a partial, sloppy smile. “I think I need a long rest before returning to Donna’s home.”

The Doctor’s mouth opened a bit as he blinked at Jenny, and then closed. He wasn’t sure what to make of that answer, but he guessed, just like him, she couldn’t answer the questions. “Quite right,” he replied finally, managing a small smile in return.

_To be continued_


	18. Trouble Knows You

There were three key skills that Benni learned as a child. They were to listen, to watch, and not to speak. His human instructors were the most adept at drilling these key skills into him, and quite often, they did it at the end of a grated-edged, metal paddle. Many times, he felt its grating bite before those three skills completely sunk in. Still, in time, according to his human instructors, ‘he became a good learner... for a mixed blood.’

Despite that, and his blossoming repugnance towards all humans, Benni had to agree with his human tutors on one fact. Those three key skills were some of the best advice he’d ever received in his long eighty-three years of life. He’d found it particularly helpful when, as a young man of nineteen, he joined the Time Agency. They aided him in being stealthy and sly. He could slip into a mass of individuals without being spotted better than  _almost_  any other agent. Then, they allowed him to slip out of that same group just as easily and come out with more information than any other agent. At the same time, those three key skills were the perfect approach to honing and multi-tasking the special mental abilities that he’d gained from his father.

Even now, as he watched and listened to the mysterious and troublesome pair: the young, blonde girl who’d locked him and Hellen in the enclosed exhibit and the tall, slender man who’d been trying to convince the Muscle Brothers to surrender, those skills aided him in learning more about them. Staying true to those three simple, key skills also gave him a chance to spare part of his attention on figuring out his next move.

_What should I do with the two of you now? I suppose I could attack, eliminating the pair of you for good... or I might try capturing one or both for questioning... or I could just stay put and wait for you to go, so I can reacquire my primary target. Hmmm... Decisions, decisions._

None of the choices sounded completely sound to Benni. They all had an air of risk, which Benni didn’t like, particularly since he still didn’t know whether or not they were actual Time Lords. He’d put his whole mission at risk, if he was captured, killed, or lost his objective in the process. Benni pursed his lips briefly, watching this Doctor and his daughter, Jenny.

_If they aren’t Time Lords, then it would be a waste of my time and energy to apprehend them. And I won’t reap any benefits, if I return to_ The Sector _completely empty handed either. Then again, if they are Time Lords, well, that... that would definitely add to the temptation of it all._

Benni was still mulling it all over when he heard Jenny, say, “Time Lords.” An alarm went off in Benni’s head and his gaze snapped instantly towards her. She still knelt before Ulean, giving the Doctor the occasional glance over her shoulder. It was the first time any of the drivel of their exchange was of any interest to Benni. He began to use those skills of his to take in every word they said.

As he took in every detail about the pair, his highly advanced mental faculties aided in comparing them to facts he recalled from  _The Sector_ ’s files. That wasn’t too much help, since most of it was technical or dealt with biological aspects. They’d be hard to test without closer contact. Benni was tempted to reach out his mind to touch one of their minds to see if they were telepathic, since the files mentioned that fact, but he didn’t dare. He knew that would break with the advice of listening, watching, and not speaking. It risked giving away his presence and putting him in danger.

Instead, Benni drew upon references from his childhood back on his father’s home planet, Talia, to help him decide. He recalled legends about the Time Lords. Some were tales about their influence on the universe, while other tales dealt with the Talians’, his father’s people, first contact with the Time Lords hundreds of thousands of years before Benni was born. He recalled his father saying that, much like the Talians, the Time Lords had a purpose and a place in the balance of the universe. As a child, Benni had pictured them weaving time itself on a large, vertical loom, much as his mum had done. Of course, he knew that was simple childish twaddle.

Thus, he drew upon a singular memory from his childhood. The one time in his eighty-three year existence that he’d actually met a Time Lord. He couldn’t say he remembered every detail of the experience, since he’d been only four at the time, but a few bits still lingered. He recalled that they wore long, mono coloured robes with high crests behind their heads; their faces were most often stern and lined with worry; their steady eyes rarely blinked; and whether they spoke or just stood stark-still staring at you, they always seemed to have an air of confidence and superiority about them. This Doctor certainly had the latter down flat when he spoke, and spying a clearer glimpse of this Doctor now, his face also held the same serious, lined look with steady eyes that rarely blinked.

The one other thing Benni recalled from this old memory was the Time Lords’ ship. Shifting his gaze from the pair, Benni stared intently at the big blue box that the Doctor had emerged from a moment ago. It was an oddity to say the least, and obviously, it didn’t belong in the Museum of Lost History, at least not sitting in the middle of a hallway. No, Benni was sure that must be their ship.

_Odd ship that looks like a blue box barely big enough for them to fit inside. Yes, I think that adds a point to the side of them being Time Lords. I bet it must be bigger on the inside, just like_ The Sector _files showed in the ship schematics. I wonder which type or model it is to look so small._

Benni pondered the ship, considering that perhaps it was using a cloaking device to mask its true form and size. Of this fact, he wasn’t completely sure, but there was one clear way to tell if it was a Time Lord ship. He watched as the Doctor led a limping Jenny back towards the ship. Benni knew the only way to know for sure if it was a Time Lord's ship was to let them leave in it.

_Yet, another decision. If I let them leave, I learn for sure if they are Time Lords, but then they’re gone. What a conundrum! Decisions, decisions._

Benni sighed as he gave a quick glance at Ulean and Rez. It was a hard choice. Still, Benni decided it was better to stay alive and free with potential information of new Time Lords, then bringing back non-Time Lords and potentially losing his objective in the process. Hence, he waited and watched as both Jenny and the Doctor entered the big blue box. The door shut behind them with a bang.

_Here goes nothing._

Benni held his breath, giving another brief glance at the tied up pair before returning his sights to the big blue box. Slowly, like a flickering torch, the light on top of the box started to flash rhythmically. As the rate of the flashing sped up, a low, drawn out, and consuming sound filled both the lit and dark spaces of the hallway. The haunting, almost moaning noise drew Benni to his feet. He knew that sound! He remembered hearing it the day the Time Lords returned to Talia all those years ago. His mouth gapped open, and, for a moment, Benni stared spellbound at the slowly fading ship. After another couple of seconds, it was gone. A hint of a smile started tugging at the corners of Benni’s mouth.

_I was right! They are Time Lords! Time... Lords! Bloody hell, I was right!_

Benni barely managed to muffle the bellowing laughter reverberating in his throat. In fact, for the second time during this mission he gave into it and threw his head back, letting loose a great roar of joy. That seemed to scare Ulean, who jumped slightly from his bounded up position near the far wall and started looking about with a nervous expression; something like a mouse sensing the proximity of a cat.

“Easy there, Old Man,” Benni called out, stepping out of the darkness and into a red lit area of the hallway. “I’ll be to you in a minute.” He was still trying to squash his laughter and the smug look on his face.

That was proving harder as he walked into the lit space where the big blue box had been. He still wasn’t sure he’d have believed it if he hadn’t seen the Time Lords, heard them, and watched their time ship fade from existence. The distinctive form of their time ship had been one thing, but the noise it clinched it for Benni. No other temporal species’ ships made a long drawn out groaning noise, as if the universe itself was crying out. Only a ship of the powerful beings that controlled time could make that sort of sound. It was hard to forget, particularly since the first time he’d heard that noise he’d been so very young and unexposed to the universe.

“Oh, I love it when I’m right,” Benni said, stepping into the space where the Time Lords’ ship had been a few brief seconds ago. He spun around on the spot, sniffing the sterilized air. Benni swore he could smell the ionized atoms excited by the temporal wake of the time ship. When he held out his right hand above his head and moved it slowly about, he thought he felt the fading tingle of the influence of time vortex that had swallowed up the Time Lords’ ship. He had been so close to those legendary beings after such a long time, and still he’d hesitated, because of his mission.

Reminding himself of that mission, Benni heard a muffled yell coming from the tied up forms of Ulean and Rez. Turning sharply towards them, Benni flashed a wicked smirk. “Now, it’s just us again. All the better, don’t you agree, Old Man?” His former leader leaned limply backwards against the wall with steel ropes secured around him. Rez was definitely unconscious and probably would remain so until the authorities arrived to arrest him.

_All the better when he takes the blame for both trying to rob this place and killing his team members. Greedy, greedy little thief, they’ll say about him. Probably get the death penalty for it. Bad for him, good for me._

Still, it wasn’t Rez that Benni was really interested in acquiring. That scrawny, weak humanoid was unimportant in terms of  _The Sector_ ’s plans. It was the chubby, scruffy-faced, and wide-awake form of Ulean that caught Benni’s attention. The older looking man’s dark brown eyes were wide, and he kept making this grumbling muffled sound, while leaning in Benni’s direction. Benni approached Ulean, crossing his arms behind his back and grinning smugly at the older man. The muffled words continued, until Benni stood over him.

“Yes, Old Man,” Benni said mockingly, kneeling down in front of the tied-up and gagged form of Ulean. The older looking man’s current appearance made Benni smile. Momentarily, Ulean reminded Benni of a fat, dumb Raxacoricofallapatorian that Benni had dealt with on occasion in his Time Agency days. Even the muffled grumbling reminded Benni of the callus and diabolical creature. Thus, he couldn’t help but smile at the older looking man, despite the searing glare Ulean gave Benni.

“Are you trying to say something, Old Man?” he said sarcastically, reaching forward and ripping the tape off of Ulean’s mouth in one quick move.

Ulean let out a yelp followed by a line of curses. Benni chuckled at his outburst, still picturing the fat, stupid creature. Even as Ulean fixed him with another brief but searing glare, Benni didn’t let his smile falter. Just like it, Ulean was less than intimating but definitely entertaining.

“Are you blind, Boy?!” Ulean more yelled than asked. “If you were hiding in those shadows all this time, why didn’t you help us? Why didn’t you shoot those two?!”

“Oh, that’s quite easy to answer,” Benni said, letting his gaze dip to right hand, which he brought in fingertip contact with his other.

“Then answer, Boy!” Ulean yelled, briefly drawing his gaze upward.

Benni noticed Ulean was still tugging away on the metal bindings with no success. Obviously, the blonde Time Lord, Jenny, had done an excellent job restraining him. Silently and only to himself, Benni congratulated the young Time Lady on her resourcefulness and skill with creating bindings. She’d used several long pieces of steel cable cords from a nearby open panel of a display indent, no doubt, to bind her prisoners up nice and tight. The steel cable was flexible to a point but very sturdy at the same time.

_Well done, young Time Lady. You are very resourceful. You’ve impressed me!_

“Get these things off of me!” Ulean yelled at the top of his lungs, pulling Benni out of his thoughts.

Benni shut his eyes, shaking his head negatively in response to Ulean’s demands. “No need to yell, Old Man,” he said in a very calm voice. Once more, he refocused on the tapping of his right hand’s fingertips against those of his left hand. He needed to pull most his energy into his right hand, preparing himself for the mental matter manipulation necessary to complete his mission. Drawing in a deep breath, he kept count of the number of times his fingertips tapped in order from pinkie to thumb. All the while, he continued to talk to Ulean.

“You know, Old Man, “he said, “you’ll catch more bees with sugar than salt... or so I’ve been told.”

“I’m not talking bees, Boy!” Ulean growled, glaring pointedly at Benni. He leaned in close, lowering his voice in a threatening way. Benni could only guess that Ulean was trying yet another tactic to intimidate him, but it was a pointless gesture. “I’m talking the Intergalactic Patrol. Those two thieves have set us up to take the fall. We’ve got to get us all out of here now!”

“Yes, I agree,” Benni said, sighing, “so we’ll make this quick.” He stopped tapping his fingertips, giving the older looking man his full attention. “Shooting those two wasn’t part of my mission, Old Man. Well, not part of my primary mission. All rest are more a passing interest to my bosses, you might say. They’d like these passing interests looked into...”

“Mission?” Ulean interrupted loudly, raising an eyebrow. He stopped for a moment in his struggles against his metal bounds. “What mission? What are you blathering about, Boy?”

Benni inclined his head towards the older looking man, letting a new, small smile curve his lips. “As you wish, Old Man. Put simply,” he said simply, flexing the fingers of his right hand now, already feeling the pulsating power building beneath his hands’ tingling skin, “to capture you.”

Benni carefully watched Ulean’s reaction to that admission. First, Ulean’s eyes widened in surprised, his pupils dilating. Then his mouth opened a bit, forming a small ‘O’. There was a moment when Benni thought Ulean might faint from that admission, but he didn’t.

Finally, quicker than Benni could blink, Ulean’s mouth snapped shut into a very tight grimace. The older looking man’ eyes narrowed to mere slits. “I knew it!”

Benni’s left eyebrow rose up his forehead in question. “You... knew... it?” He snorted briefly with amusement, letting his gaze absentmindedly skim up and down the older looking man. “Really?”

“Don’t laugh at me!” Ulean said coldly, venom seemed to seep from his very words. Beneath his words, Benni could make out a low threatening growl. “Of course, I knew! You smelled funny the second I met you, Boy!”

“Really?” Benni inquired again, letting his hands rest on his knees as he continued to stare at Ulean with a perplexed look. This comment of Ulean’s surprised him, and it partially had him reconsidering the older looking man. Perhaps he had underestimated the mental abilities and intelligence of Ulean. Then again, Benni realised, the older looking man could simply be lying. He decided to test his assumption.

“And here I thought I was doing a good job of keeping my secrets,” Benni said rudely, “keeping your band of slack-jawed and slow wannabe thieves in the dark.”

“You wish, Boy,” Ulean snorted with his own amusement, sounding to Benni as if he was lying. Still, Benni kept his mouth shut, allowing Ulean to continue. “Of course, I knew! It was completely obvious! It was obvious in everything you did, you said, and how you tried to act like one of us. You aren’t one of us. You’re… you’re one of them. Aren’t you?”

“One... of... them?” Benni said with a questioning tone and cocking his head to the side. “Who do you...?”

“I knew it!” Ulean exclaimed again, starting to slide backwards on his bum, but he stopped short when his back struck the wall behind him. “I bet you’ve been tracking me for awhile, Boy. You and your do-gooding mates. Ever since New Earth, I’d wager, after what I did at the New New York’s mayor’s mansion.”

“Ah,” Benni said simply, before chuckling and shaking his head.

“Stop laughing!” Ulean yelled. “I hate when people laugh at me.”

Benni bit his lip and nodded his understanding. “I know, Old Man. It’s is no fun to be mocked for your differences,” he said, edging closely to Ulean who struggled more as Benni approached him, “but I think I should tell you...”

“Well, you can forget!” Ulean declared, giving several sharp tugs on his bound feet and hands, “I won’t down go quietly! You’ll have to kill me first. I won’t go down without a fight!”

“Oh, no, no. I don’t think so,” Benni said, lifting his right hand out before him. “You live, Old Man.”

“What?” Ulean said questioningly. His dark eyes watched as Benni adjusted the angle and distance of his hand from Ulean’s face.

Benni knew all this talk was merely a distraction, while he prepared himself for what was coming next. He shut his eyes and slowed his breathing. “And even better, Old Man, you’re going to go on a little trip through time and space, paid for by my bosses,” Benni told him, spreading his fingers widely apart.

“Bosses?” Ulean asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. “Wait, if you aren’t working with the Intergalactic Patrol, then who... who are you working for? Is this a personal vendetta for some fat bureaucrat or...”

“No,” Benni said simply, “but still my bosses want to meet you, Old Man,” Benni replied, before silently mumbling something to himself. He once more pictured his inner self: the bright red ball of light.

“What...,” Ulean stuttered, “What do you mean?”

“You’ll see,” Benni said simply. As he had done many times before, reaching into the minds of Ulean and the rest of this band of thieves, Benni focused his mind and self. The only difference this time was that he didn’t draw upon himself: his own energy, for the influence. Instead, he drew on everything around him. All matter, all light and darkness was his to bend into whatever form he could imagine. The matter of most interest to him was that which made Ulean.

“See?” Ulean asked. “See what?”

Benni did not reply. He was too busy, drawing in several deep breaths. In his mind’s eye, he pictured Ulean in every vivid detail he could. Ulean’s wide brown eyes would lock on the outstretched hand. The round, scruffy looking face would no doubt have a gapping expression. He could see it all in his mind’s eye, and as the image formed in Benni’s head, slowly a small flickering white light appeared from the centre of the palm of Benni’s outstretched right hand.

“What... what’s that?” Ulean asked with fear dripping from his words.

Benni smiled. “Me,” he said simply as the white light grew brighter and larger, nearly blinding Ulean.

“What?!” Ulean exclaimed, sounding afraid. “What are you on about now, Boy? What...?”

Ulean stopped talking, and Benni could picture how the older man would be squinting at the white light. No doubt, he would be just starting to notice a purple hallo glow forming at the centre as three, slightly obscured forms appeared.

“What’s going on?!” Ulean demanded more than asked. Benni also thought he heard a subtle tremor to the older looking man’s voice. “What’s that?”

At this point, Benni knew the three blurred objects would fully be emerging from the pinnacle of the purple hallo point in the white light. These would appear to Ulean as long, greenish tendrils, but they were much more than tiny, slender limbs. His father called them  _the Inner Hands_. They would slowly extend outward from the centre of Benni’s right hands. With each passing second, these agile hands would be stretching, squelching, and growing in length. Then, in a slow rhythmic dance motion, they weaved amongst one another, like children dancing around the Maypole. The Inner Hands would spiral ever closer to Ulean’s face.

Ulean let out a blood-curdling scream, while the three tendrils flung themselves towards his forehead: his temples and the centre of his hairline. He shrieked louder and louder, trying without success to shake their hold on his head, but the tendrils locked his head in place. “Stop! Stop it!” Ulean begged. He drew in many laboured breaths. “What’s... happening... to me? I can’t move my head!”

Benni reordered the collection of matter known as Ulean with a series of quick calculated thoughts. This task was much easier than mental manipulation. Benni really only had to change not control, but still he had to remain focused on the task. One wrong thought and Ulean’s brain could suddenly become chocolate pudding... quite literally.

“Don’t fight it, Ulean,” Benni said in a calm voice. “Like I said my bosses want to meet you. They want you alive and in one piece, so let’s make this easy.”

“No! No!” Ulean screamed, before gasping in a shrill voice. “What did you do? I can’t feel my feet. What did you do to my feet? I can’t look down and see! What did you do?!”

“Just starting slow, Old Man” Benni replied sweetly, drawing in a deep breath. “First the toes and the feet, and then...”

“My legs!” Ulean shouted with a higher pitched voice. “Oh please, stop! My legs! How can you take my legs from me? Please no more!”

“Yes, legs. That’s just what I was about to say, Old Man. Little by little,” Benni said sarcastically as he continued transforming the matter of Ulean into a more solidified, more easily transferable form. “And then the fingers... hands...”

“My arms!” Ulean interrupted with a roar of sorrow. “Oh stop it, Boy! Stop this! Stop this now! Whatever you want, I’ll give it you. Whatever it will take, but please... please have mercy!”

Benni sighed growing irritated by the pathetic and pointless pleas, but he still kept his eyes shut and his mind focused on the matter of Ulean. “Now, now, it’s almost over. There’s no need to make all this unnecessary fuss,” Benni said sweetly and calmly. “Now on to your main body.”

“Wait, you can’t stop my heart! I’ll die! You said you want me alive... and,” Ulean pleaded, sobbing as a weak human child. Then he paused with a gasp. “I can’t feel my body! I’m dead! You killed me!”

“No, no, calm yourself, Old Man,” Benni said calmly. “If you were dead, how could you speak?”

“Then... what...?” he asked, sounding still to be in tears.

“If you listen very closely, Old Man,” Benni explained, “you’ll hear it still beating in your very cold, solid chest.”

Ulean’s brown eyes widened, and he made small gasping breaths. “But... but how! Not even the Sisters of Plenitude could...”

“You think so three dimensionally, Old Man,” Benni said smugly, watching in his mind as his Inner Hands continued the manipulation process of Ulean. “The Talians, my people, lived beyond the narrow mindedness of your species limiting speculations and theories on what’s possible and impossible. Matter is simply a toy to be moulded and shaped like clay. Its chemical and biological components altered to fit my needs, my wants.” Benni’s eyes finally snapped open, showing the white fire within them. “And you, Old Man, are my clay!”

Ulean let out a deafening bellow of terror. Almost at the same time, his lips turned a dark blue, his skin a pale aquamarine, and his hair drained of the remaining blackness to be completely white. Within seconds, Ulean had become a statue of solid ice.

Once the screams of Ulean had faded away and the only movement was Benni’s Inner Hands still attached to three points on Ulean’s forehead, Benni’s white eyes slide shut once more. Then the Inner Hands pulled back from Ulean’s forehead, making a wet popping sound as they disconnected. They floated before Ulean for a moment, slowly returning to their rhythmic undulations in a circle. After a second, they started to retract back into the centre of Benni’s right palm, back into the halo of purple at the centre of the blinding white light. Soon, they were gone, and not long after, even the white light dissipated. Benni’s hand looked once more as any  _human_  hand.

Benni drew in a deep breath, gradually leaving the world of manipulation and his inner, true self behind him. Opening his eyes, which were once more blue in colour, he looked at the now frozen Ulean. There was still fear evident in the older looking, scruffy-faced man’s face.

“There much better, and all ready for our little trip through time and space to visit  _The Sector_ ,” Benni said mockingly to the frozen Ulean. He reached into his right trouser pocket and retrieved a paper-thin circle. Around its centre, there was a filled-in red circle, and inside of that was a broken, diamond-shaped infinity symbol. He placed the paper-thin circle on Ulean’s forehead much like a sticker. Once satisfied that it was secure, Benni lightly tapped the red circular symbol.

A moment later, a red light enveloped Ulean, and he vanished. Benni smiled, rising to his feet again. “Ah, another mission well done,” he said, before lifting his wrist and smiling at the wrist device. “Good job to us, Lara.”

It made a confirmation beeping noise, even before Benni flipped Lara open. He started to enter the confirmation command to his ship, which he knew would immediately transfer his message to  _The Sector_.

A moment later, a voice broke over it, sounding clean and clear. “We read you, Operative Durkugguns. What is your current status?”

Benni spoke into Lara. “Target has been acquired and already is in stasis aboard my ship,” he reported, “I should be back at the appointed time.”

“Excellent work, Operative Durkugguns,” said the voice coldly. “Have all loose ends been taken care?”

Glancing at the unconscious form of Rez once again, Benni smirked. “Yes, sir. All loose ends have been dealt with.”

“Excellent,” said the voice happily, pausing for a moment before continuing, “Is there anything further to report, Agent Durkugguns?”

“Yes, when I get back, sir, I need to speak to the Board... in private. I have some very…  _interesting_  information they will want to hear about,” Benni replied.

“Can you elaborate, Operative? The Board won’t just see anyone,” the voice pointed out.

“Oh, they’ll see me,” Benni said coldly with a devious smirk. “Just say… Time Lords, they'll want to see me then."

 


End file.
